Dec 12 2007
Plans to send out more one-person ambulances in response to 999 calls could put lives at risk, UNISON warns.
From April next year, ambulance trusts in England will be expected to respond to three-quarters of emergency calls within eight minutes.
Trusts plan to use more single response vehicles in a bid to meet the targets.
However, UNISON said cutting back on traditional two-person ambulances would affect the way patients were treated and could put both them and paramedics at risk.
"This is a fundamental shift in the way the ambulance service responds to emergency calls," said national ambulance officer Sam Oestreicher.
"We are worried that it could become too easy to send a single responder when what is needed is a fully equipped ambulance to treat the patient at the scene and then get them safely to A&E."
The scheme must be "rigorously controlled to make sure that there is no detriment to patients," he said.
Mr Oestreicher warned that working alone placed paramedics in greater danger of being attacked.
"Staff already suffer an unacceptably high level of violence and abuse, so we need robust lone worker policies in place to make sure this does not get worse," he said.
UNISON will work with ambulance trusts to ensure they all have lone worker policies in place, he added.