PATIENTS who dial 999 may no longer be taken to hospital by paramedics
under
a plan prompted by hospital closures and loss of GP cover. The Scottish
Ambulance Service is looking to create a new breed of ambulance personnel
who do not respond to emergencies but, once patients are stabilised,
shuttle
them to hospital. Introducing these "advanced care teams" would allow the
most highly trained ambulance staff - paramedics and technicians - to
remain
in communities ready to deal with the next casualty.
Adrian Lucas, chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service, said the
plan was a response to the closure of community hospitals, which is
increasing journey times to wards, and an overhaul of GP services which is
expected to leave paramedics mopping up more patients outside office
hours.
Advanced care teams, proposed for the more remote parts of Scotland, would
transfer patients after diagnosis and treatment by paramedics and
ambulance
technicians. They would move only lower-risk patients who do not require
an
"accident and emergency" level of care en route.
Mr Lucas said, "they will be experts at looking after patients in transit.
What they will not be trained in is all the diagnosis stuff and handling
emergency stuff but they will be able to deal with all the post care
aspects
of that. I know we will get people saying 'why can't you take me now, we
have to wait another hour for the (other) vehicle', but if you take
patients
into hospital at 2am not much happens to them except they go to bed."
However, David Sedgwick, consultant general surgeon at the Belford
Hospital
in Fort William, questioned whether paramedics had the necessary level of
training to make such decisions. He said: "I think you will find there
will
be a lot more wrong calls."
Dr Michael Foxley, a Fort William GP, felt the public would not welcome a
secondary level of ambulance care. He said: "At the moment, there are
hospitals and there are GPs in the Highlands and they have been in place
for
last the 80 to 100 years. What really should happen is they should try and
keep the existing system in place."
He added that patients with lower limb fractures could suffer
complications
where "if you do not get urgent surgery you lose your leg".
Dr David Murray, a GP in Lochcarron, said the idea sounded "good on paper"
but questioned how the Scottish Ambulance Service would recruit staff for
the advanced care teams.
However, Gary Coutts, the new chairman of Highland NHS Board, said the
plan
appeared logical. He said: "We are going to have to spend a lot of time
reconfiguring services to give people better care when they need it and
this
seems a step in the right direction."
Full story:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/13855.html
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