Volunteers may very well be responding to pressing 999 calls in London inside weeks, because the capital’s ambulance service tries to sort out mounting delays.
A pilot scheme, revealed in London ambulance service (LAS) board papers on the finish of March, will deal with individuals who fall into “class three”, the place they require a response inside two hours, and wish further assist due to mobility issues.
Class three calls can embrace late phases of labour, belly pains, and diabetes the place sufferers may be handled in their very own dwelling.
The report stated calls from sufferers who’re on this class and have mobility points “ends in the dispatch of an emergency ambulance, lowering ambulance availability for increased precedence incidents and longer ready occasions for sufferers”.
It added: “Following a scientific evaluation, the Volunteer Ambulance Automobile Challenge will dispatch a volunteer automotive to those sufferers, lowering ready occasions and growing ambulance availability.”
It comes with ambulance response occasions on the worst stage ever recorded – prompting the president of the Royal School of Emergency Medication, Dr Katherine Henderson, to say lives are being put in danger by delays.
She informed the Guardian: “It’s not acceptable … it’s a really, very important lack of that fundamental settlement with the general public in regards to the NHS, which is that should you dial 999 and also you want an ambulance – which an previous one that has fallen downstairs does want – you’ll get one in a well timed manner.
“And we’ve damaged that contract with the general public. It feels shaming to me that we’re on this scenario. We’ve bought aged, susceptible folks at dwelling who want an ambulance … and we are able to’t get them in.”
Nationally, class 2 emergencies – together with circumstances comparable to coronary heart assaults or strokes – confronted a median wait of greater than an hour, in opposition to a goal of 18 minutes. In London, the common was barely decrease, at 51 minutes. Class 1 incidents are outlined when the affected person is in a life-threatening situation.
Volunteers are already utilized by hospitals and charities to take folks to outpatient appointments, and taxis are used to take low-priority sufferers to hospital after being assessed.
The LAS stated skilled volunteers already reply to 999 calls in their very own automotive alongside ambulances. But it surely confirmed that such volunteers would now be deployed for lower-category calls in some cases and take sufferers to hospital.
An LAS spokesperson stated: “These absolutely skilled volunteers, who already reply to 999 calls of their communities, will assist sufferers who’ve been assessed to not want an ambulance however who may have extra assist than a taxi can present.”
NHS England and NHS Enchancment assist the plan, the board assembly was informed, and NHS England is contemplating it as the premise for a “nationwide volunteer transport” system.
The pilot will use 22 volunteers, skilled by St John Ambulance and termed “neighborhood first responders”. They are going to be based mostly out of six ambulance stations throughout the capital.
Rachel Energy, chief government of the Sufferers Affiliation, stated she had issues. She informed the Telegraph: “Given the lengthy waits sufferers are experiencing ready to switch from ambulances into A&E, we’d wish to know extra about how sufferers in volunteers’ vehicles may be adequately medically supported in the event that they face an extended delay earlier than being admitted.”
She added: “The introduction of a everlasting volunteer drive transporting 999 sufferers can’t be an alternative choice to skilled paramedic employees.”
An NHS England spokesperson stated: “It is a domestically run pilot which can see absolutely skilled volunteers like St John Ambulance accompany lower-risk sufferers to hospital the place sufferers don’t must be managed as an emergency however are required to attend hospital following a scientific evaluation.
“There are not any present plans to increase this scheme extra broadly.”