The United Kingdom has fifteen public ambulance trusts where twelve are from England and Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales has one each with several divisions. Ambulance services or ambulance trusts, as what’s it’s commonly known in UK are main responders for emergencies and accidents. This service is dedicated in providing out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient, or the medical practitioner, believes constitutes a medical emergency.
To fully perform the duties, an ambulance trust is composed of team of professionals who are assigned with specific tasks in handling an injured patient. Each of these emergency personnel has undergone series of separate education, trainings where they are qualified for their rankings in the staff. Usually there are five people in an ambulance team starting with the Ambulance Care Assistant
The Ambulance Care Assistant is the one responsible for the patient transport service of an ambulance trust. They usually are the ones who drive the disabled, elderly and weak confined patients to and from clinics, therapy appointments or day care centres. Their duty is to ensure that the patient is comfortable and safe while they’re being transported from one place or another. The ambulance care assistant is usually the one in the ambulance trust staff that gets to spend more time with patients regularly because of their job. Sometimes they work in twos where one is going to drive the ambulance and the other is going to assist the patient all the way- wheelchairs, errands and all. Aside from those, this member of the emergency response staff is also responsible for keeping the ambulance clean and organised- always prepared whenever there’s an emergency.
Next in rank is the Ambulance Technician. Basically, their task is to assist the paramedic. They are allowed to assess the patient’s condition and prior to the paramedic’s presence however they cannot perform any advance treatment or offer any medications. On the other hand, when they’re working in-house, they answer emergency 999 calls. Ambulance technicians who are on duty to answer emergency calls must have a flexible time schedule. Aside from that, when the Ambulance Care Assistant cannot perform its duty to drive, they must take place.
The Emergency Care Assistant on the other hand is somewhat similar to the ambulance technician however, they vary little in skills and shifts. ECAs are assigned also assigned to answer emergency calls and they are obliged to be the first responders in an emergency. If the emergency is categorised as intense, ECAs must find a way to get to the patient the fastest way possible. They usually administer the patient’s status and vital signs so when the actual emergency staff comes, assessment is already done and the patient can proceed to initial treatment.
Emergency Care Practitioners are higher in ranking and they have more sets of advanced duties. They can carry out and interpret diagnostics tests and prescribe a wider range of medications. They also refer patients to social care services and direct them to specialised units. The emergency care practitioners are usually next in rank with the Paramedic. The paramedics have the most extensive duties as they can treat cardiac arrests, perform minor surgical operations and incisions on the patient while in the ambulance and up until it reaches the ER.
