Ambulance

An ambulance is a vehicle designated for the transport of sick or injured people. The first ambulances called by that name were horse ambulances used in the American Civil War. The first practical ambulances were created by Dominique Jean Larrey, a French surgeon (1766-1842), for use in the Napoleonic Wars. Modern-day ambulances are typically large automobiles on a van or light truck chassis.

Ambulances in the UK

In the UK, ambulance services are provided under the National Health Service through local ambulance 'trusts'. Each trust is specific to a county or area, and so the country is divided across a number of ambulance trusts, in a similar way to the British Police are.

Related Topics:
UK - National Health Service - British Police

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Most trusts offer three levels of personnel for service: care assistants, technicians and paramedics. Care assistants operate PTS (Patient Transport Services), which is largely concerned with the moving of patients between hospital and home. Technicians and paramedics crew the emergency ambulances, providing more urgent transport and also paramedical care of casualties. Occasionally, when not attending emergency incidents, technicians and paramedics may help out with PTS duties.

Related Topics:
Technicians - Paramedic

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Ambulance Trust's performance is measured. The Governments targets are to reach 75% of Catagory A (life threatening) calls within 8 minutes. A number of initiatives have been introduced to assist meeting these targets, including Rapid Responders and Community Responders.

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Ambulance crews work a shift rota, and working nights and public holidays is seen as part of the job. Many people start out in a PTS role to gain experience of patient care, and then progress onto additional technician training at a later date. This has always been the classic method of entry into the ambulance service, although more recently some Universities have started to offer paramedicine degrees, with guaranteed direct entry into technician status on completion. These courses are somewhat controversial, with some more experienced ambulance staff arguing that such a fast-track approach misses the experience of PTS where recruits learn vital interpersonal skills. Direct entry to paramedic is not available, and can only be achieved via the technician route. Many trusts receive several hundred applicants per place, and this allows them to be very discriminating.

Related Topics:
Universities - Degree

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Technician training in many trusts is a 10 week course, usually residential. The IHCD division of Edexcel provides the qualifications for ambulance technicians and paramedics, and qualifiers become known as "state registered" or "IHCD registered". Without this registration, crewing of emergency vehicles or administration of certain medical techniques is forbidden.

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Private ambulance services are becoming more common in the UK, along with the traditional voluntary sectors, such as the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance. However both the voluntary and private services tend to be concerned with PTS, and it is rare (although not unheard of) to find an emergency being attended by a non-NHS ambulance. The relevant UK legislation applies to all ambulances with no discrimination as to who owns or operates them. The majority of UK Private Ambulance Services are members of the British Ambulance Association.

Related Topics:
Red Cross - St. John Ambulance - British Ambulance Association

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In the UK, a minority of NHS ambulance staff are highly critical of the voluntary and private services, and there may exist an elitist attitude within some trusts. This may stem from hatred incurred during the various ambulance strikes, where private, voluntary and military ambulance services have stepped in to provide cover, earning them the title "scabs" (a northern British slang term for people who break a trade union strike) . Most trusts are more positive about the additional services, even welcoming them as a means to reduce their own workload!

Related Topics:
Strike - Trade union

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