Paramedics who can give people emergency care at home will play a vital role in relieving overstretched A&E sevices this winterFor the specialist paramedics in Andy Collen's team,keeping patients at home is as much a allotment of the job as rushing them quickly into hospital with blue lights flashing when they need it. So when an older person calls 999 after suffering a plunge, the paramedic practitioners at South East Coast Ambulance service (Secamb) can stitch up their wounds and prescribe them medicine rather than taking them into a crowded accident and emergency department. "People are surprised at what we can finish – they assume they will have to go to hospital and when you can offer them care in their home, and they are delighted," says Collen, clinical development manager at Secamb.
With original figures showing a rise of 43% in the numbers of patients spending more than four hours in A&E and warnings that emergency care departments are facing their worst winter yet, and Secamb's approach is one that health chiefs hope could be rolled out more widely to relieve ease the crisis. WhileAs NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh's review of urgent care services is published,NHS England says many of those who end up in A&E could avoid a hospital visit if more effective alternatives were more widely available.
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Source: theguardian.com