Emergency Services: Paramedics

Lord Harris of Haringey Excerpts

Wednesday 15th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the London Ambulance Service has advised that the article in the Sunday Times was slightly misleading, in that the two members of staff who attended that particular patient were student paramedics in their third and final year of training and so were sufficiently qualified to work unsupervised. It is inaccurate to call them “unqualified”. The issue in this case was that, despite their qualifications and experience, the crew did not act in accordance with their training or the procedures that were laid down. That has been acknowledged by the London Ambulance Service, which has said that it believes that the failings are not reflective of the hundreds of ambulance staff who provide a high level of patient care to Londoners every day.

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

My Lords, the Minister has suggested that, on the issue raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner of Parkes, it is really down to the management of ambulance trusts to make all those decisions. There is widespread concern around the country about the delays in ambulances reaching emergency cases. For example, I am told that the police now find that they are the first responders and end up having to take people to hospital. Is this a problem with the management of ambulance trusts or is it about the level of resources being made available by commissioners for emergency services and ambulance services?

[Earl Howe]

The noble Lord is quite right that certain areas of the country have seen unacceptable delays in ambulance response times—I am aware of two trusts in that regard. However, this is not an issue around a lack of trained paramedics. Projections by the Centre for Workforce Intelligence show that there is a secure supply of paramedics until 2016. The College of Paramedics has stated that training posts on courses are always filled and, currently, 900 ambulance technicians are training to become paramedics. We are seeing an increase in paramedic numbers, which is encouraging.