AMBULANCES NOW MANNED BY STUDENTS
999 crews attend emergencies... but can’t treat casualties
AMBULANCES are being dispatched to emergencies without anyone on board who can actually treat patients, sparking fears that lives are being put at risk.
Instead of the ideal crew – a trained paramedic and trained technician – ambulances are being sent to incidents staffed only by a single trainee.
Although trainee technicians are allowed to carry out emergency resuscitation they are not allowed to diagnose patients, perform procedures or administer drugs.
Significantly, a trainee in sole charge of an ambulance is not allowed to transport patients to hospital.
Last night the main union representing ambulance staff said the situation – which it claims is happening across Scotland – is ‘potentially disastrous’.
The GMB union blamed an obsession with arbitrary targets and said it had made a formal complaint to the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS).
GMB branch secretary John Marr said: ‘Ambulances are being single-crewed by students. They have been rostered alone, which is a concern to us.
‘The only time students are supposed to be single-crewed is
when they turn up for a shift and the qualified member of staff they are on with has called in sick. Even then, they should only be sent out to immediately life-threatening calls while management are sorting out what to do with that student.
‘But they are left on their own for the whole shift, which is against policy. We’ve highlighted that we have our concerns.
‘The policy is not to do it, so why are they still doing it? It is, potentially, a disastrous situation.
‘Rather than saying we can’t crew that vehicle and standing it down, they’d rather the ambulance was kept on the road at all costs – without any concept of safety to the public or the member of staff.’
SAS protocol states ambulances should usually be staffed by a fully-trained technician and a fully-trained paramedic.
There are around 1,100 technicians in Scotland, qualified clinicians whose job is to assess, treat, manage and transport patients.
Their training allows them to carry out diagnostic tests, perform various procedures and administer a variety of drugs.
There are also around 1,300 paramedics, who have completed a further year of training and have an even wider range of clinical skills.
Normally, trainee technicians should only be sent out in an ambulance alongside another, fullytrained crew member. However, one whistleblower said the SAS ‘routinely and often’ disregarded its own rules in an attempt to meet response time targets.
Trainee technicians in their first year can take basic observations such as pulse, blood pressure and oxygen levels. They can administer oxygen and aspirin, operate a defibrillator and are trained in CPR resuscitation.
They can’t assess, treat or manage patients alone and thus can’t give pain relief, help mothers give birth, identify broken bones or assess even minor injuries or illnesses.
One ambulance insider said: ‘Student technicians aren’t permitted to take clinical responsibility.
‘Even if they are travelling in an ambulance with a qualified clinician in the front – a technician or a paramedic – they are not allowed to be in the back of the ambulance looking after that patient.
‘They should always be crewed with a qualified member of staff and not planned as a single resource. But routinely they are being rostered to work on their own and being dispatched to jobs. This happens regularly and often.’
When trainees are sent to emergencies, the SAS tries to scramble a back-up ambulance or tries to find a GP nearby to assist.
But, the insider explained, help cannot always be found.
They added: ‘It all comes down to targets and money and numbers. It is putting patients at risk, without a doubt, and also putting students in a very vulnerable position.’
The issue was highlighted last week after an ambulance crewed by a single student technician responded to a child knocked down in Caithness. SAS also called a GP to the scene.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘This is another worrying revelation which points to real staffing struggles.
‘It is clear there just aren’t enough resources for a hard-working organisation doing its very best, and the SNP Government has to explain why that is.’
An SAS spokesman said: ‘Ambulances are not routinely singlecrewed other than in exceptional circumstances.
‘Where single-crewed ambulances do attend incidents, they are tasked appropriately and backed up as necessary.
‘On the extremely rare occasions where a student is single-crewed and also the nearest available resource to an incident, they will attend as a first responder and will be backed up by a fully qualified crew.’ Comment: Page 25
IF you find yourself in a crisis and have to call an ambulance, the very least you should be able to expect is that the staff on board are fully trained and able to provide life-saving treatments.
Incredibly, as The Scottish Mail on Sunday reveals today, that is not always so.
Instead of being dispatched with the standard crew of a fully-trained paramedic and a qualified technician, some ambulances attend emergencies with only a single person on board – sometimes a trainee technician, who is neither qualified nor permitted to diagnose patients, perform procedures or administer drugs.
In fact, a trainee in sole charge of an ambulance cannot even legally transport patients to hospital.
The Scottish Ambulance Service needs to get its house in order before this worrying staffing crisis leads to a wholly avoidable tragedy.