The future for the Ambulance Service - July 2005

2005 saw the publication of "Taking Healthcare to the Patient: Transforming NHS ambulance services" by Peter Bradley CBE. I carefully researched the impact that differently trained paramedics could have for patient quality of care, and for the use of follow-on services. My specific brief was to determine whether it was possible (at that time) that 1 million emergency attendances (attendance at hospital A&E) could be avoided. I concluded (brought out further in "Measuring the benefits of the Emergency care practitioner" Sept 2004) that alternately trained paramedics could not provide the necessary care for patients but that fully trained emergency care practitioners could provide this, though to avoid 1 million attendances would require 11,000 ECPs to be trained. Remarkably coincidentally, Prof Sir George Alberti had asked how many ECPs could be delivered within 10 years, and I'd worked out a similar number based on the availability of (mainly nurses) willing to make the move, the pace of training vs need to keep staff on the front line, and the benefits that could be achieved vs need to spend only when the money is available. Download "Taking Healthcare to the Patient" here.