The staff working on our emergency ambulances include Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians. They respond to a wide variety of calls but mainly to serious or life-threatening calls.
Paramedics are often the most senior clinicians working in a double-crewed ambulance, and they possess additional skills and training to perform a range of life-saving procedures. These include advanced airway management techniques to assist with difficult airways and breathing, and intravenous (IV) access to give medications.
We also have Assistant Ambulance Practitioners, who work alongside either a registered paramedic or another suitably qualified member of staff such as an Emergency Medical Technician. A paramedic or Emergency Medical Technician will guide and support the Assistant Ambulance Practitioner and maintain overall clinical responsibility for the patient.
These teams carry a full range of equipment on our emergency ambulances, including electrocardiogram (ECG) machines to monitor a patient’s heart and defibrillators which can restart the heart if a patient goes into cardiac arrest.
Increasingly, we also have more paramedics working in cars alongside mental health and community nursing specialists and more being upskilled to become advanced paramedic practitioners who can do more to treat patients on scene.
