UK’s NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE, which seems to constantly put new desks in service while taking ambulances out of service, has offered up still another scheme to cover up their failure to get ambulances to their patients. The new proposal calls for not sending the ambulances in the first place.
This plan will be introduced into the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust in Buckinghamshire. It calls for greater use of “rapid response cars” and a legion of volunteers and trained observers. There are three levels of service proposed:
- Urban areas – They will send a rapid response car (one medic, no transport ability) to assess the patient and then the medic will decide if an ambulance is needed.
- Semi-urban areas – “Aternative healthcare professionals” and volunteers will somehow dash to the incident where they will assess the patient and make the decision if an ambulance is required.
- Rural areas – “First responders” including volunteers, fire crews and police officers will go to the patient and make the same determination. If they call for an ambulance, then the target response time will be 19 minutes.
Even though it said workers would follow “robust clinical rules” the ambulance trust admits that the new set-up could make matters worse. So far, nobody in Buckinghamshire seems very enthusiastic about the proposal. The chairman of Buckinghamshire County Council’s overview and scrutiny committee for public health services, said, “It is not something I would be particularly comfortable with, but it seems they are just lobbing ideas in the air.”
The Bucks Free Press has the latest REPORT.
