Shock 999 calls claim

Paramedics are answering 999 calls in call centres and sending out technicians and untrained first responders to deal with emergencies, according to a member of Staffordshire Ambulance Service.The worker, who does not wish to be named, said that lives are being put at risk as Staffordshire Ambulance Service battles to hit response time targets - with the welfare of patients coming second.

The role of Community First Responders (CFR) has hit the headlines this week after it was revealed that more than half the drugs being administered by the teams are not suitable for use by lay people.

The CFR teams have hit back - saying the drugs have helped them save lives when they arrive on scene - and that without their use people will die.

Now a member of the ambulance service staff has joined the debate, saying the service itself should put on more crews to relieve the pressure on the lay teams.

He said: “The responders are not trained to paramedic level, or even as technicians - yet they have been giving these drugs out like sweets. It has been established that they do not have the training to give out some of the drugs they have been administering, which is why it has been stopped.

“However the reason these responders are doing this in the first place is that the ambulance service aren’t putting crews on the road to cover outlying areas.

“The CFRs want to continue to administer the drugs and are trying to hold the ambulance service to ransom because the service is totally reliant on them.

“The Ambulance Service is a law unto itself, doing as it sees fit and ignoring national guidelines.

“Some of the first responders are working in full-time jobs during the day, then on the ‘cars’ at night, which can’t be good for themselves or the patient.

“I have been working in this job for a long time and it is about time people knew about this.”

Bob Lee, spokesman for Staffordshire Ambulance Service said that the situation is not clear-cut. He said: “CFR is no longer unique to Stafford, but used all over the country It is not the case that we are keeping paramedics back to answer the phones and using CFR teams solely, they are out on the road as much as anyone.

“We do have paramedics answering telephones, but that has always been the case, at the end of the day you need people in the centre to give expert advice to callers in an emergency. CFR teams are not in place of an ambulance response - but part of an overall response. They are backed up by paramedics if needed.”