Patients the priority, as NEAS reviews accident and emergency provision
Changes would give North East more vehicles and staff
A new structure has been proposed by NEAS to treat patients
needing accident and emergency care, as demand on the service
continues to rise.
The new proposals would mean relocating some ambulances
across the region to meet current anf future demand on
services.
An expanded, non-emergency tier is also being proposed to
respond to urgent care patients who are not 999 emergencies but
still require a level of clinical care during transfers between
hospitals or transport at the request of GPs.
The proposal would see an increase of 67 additional staff and
nine additional ambulances across the North East from those
currently in post to continue to meet response time targets and
improved quality care indicators for patients.
Paul Liversidge, Director of Operations, said: "Our objective is
to ensure a paramedic is sent to every 999 patient who needs one;
that there are more front line paramedic-crewed A&E vehicles
available for life-threatening emergency calls; and that we provide
a service which allows us to meet the demand from non-emergency
patients.
"Our existing service was last reviewed in 2006 and no longer
represents an efficient or productive use of our resources."
The North East Ambulance Service is currently responding to 78%
of life-threatening calls in less than eight minutes, against a
national standard of 75% and 97% of these calls were reached within
19 minutes across the region; but the review indicated the these
targets would not be met in the future without a
re-organisation.
Mr Liversidge said: "A key area is around the service we provide
to our urgent care patients. These patients are often assigned to
paramedics who can be diverted to more serious 999 calls elsewhere
if they are the nearest ambulance. We do not believe this is a
satisfactory provision of 999 A&E services or of the care for
our urgent patients.
Maps of the proposed changes can be viewed by clicking on the
relevant operating division
Durham
North of
Tyne
South of Tyne
Teesside
