Further Concerns Over Yorkshire Ambulance Response Times

Yorkshire Ambulance is once again being criticised for its handling of emergency calls.

The Unite Union's accusing the service of of downgrading calls in order to meet targets.

It's as 999 calls reach extremely high levels.

Gail Cartmail is from Unite and told Viking FM:

"We have evidence that calls are downgraded, specifically to meet targets rather than linked to clinical need and our worry about that is that the real emergencies are being put further down the pile for qualified ambulance crews to respond to.

"We think Yorkshire Ambulance Service is at crisis point and we believe that a lot of this is avoidable. If management work more collaboratively with their work force, the people who really know what they're doing, the people on the front line are best placed to find the solutions."

She says she's also concerned about the number of unqualified crews being sent out:

"Emergency care assistants being used to respond to emergency calls, we were told that this no longer happens but one of the most senior managers yesterday admitted that although they try and avoid that, it still does happen and members of the public will find that very worrying."

But Yorkshire Ambulance Service has told Viking FM that highly skilled clinicians assess how serious cases are and they choose the most serious response.

In a statement, the Trust said:

"In some life-threatening emergencies it may be beneficial to patients to receive further in-depth clinical assessment. Highly-skilled clinicians based in the Emergency Operations Centre provide further assessment, advice and support using nationally-validated support tools.

This clinically-led process may identify that the patient’s condition is more or less serious than the initial assessment. This results in those with a serious condition receiving support from a clinician until an ambulance clinician arrives on scene and those whose condition is not immediately life-threatening receiving the most appropriate care for their need where alternative pathways of care are available.

In addition, less urgent calls are assessed by clinicians to ensure that they receive the most appropriate response for their needs."

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