HC Deb 26 October 1993 vol 230 cc681-2
6. Mr. Bates

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on progress towards the target of placing a paramedic on each frontline emergency ambulance.

Mr. Sackville

There has been excellent progress in paramedic training in all ambulance services.

Mr. Bates

Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating the Cleveland ambulance trust on achieving its target of having a paramedic on each of its 18 frontline ambulances three years ahead of target? It was the first ambulance service to do so. Does my hon. Friend agree that this is another example of how the new ambulance trusts are delivering improvements in health care and emergency cover to the communities that they serve?

Mr. Sackville

Indeed. After my visit to the Cleveland ambulance service—I thank my hon. Friend for his invitation—I said to myself that if Cleveland can do it, why not the rest of the country? At that time, Cleveland was four years ahead of target, and I decided to bring forward to 1995 the target date by which there would be a fully trained paramedic on every frontline ambulance. The manner in which my hon. Friend's local ambulance service has achieved its target is a tribute to it, and I hope that he will pass on my congratulations.

Mr. Spearing

Will not the Minister agree that, irrespective of the importance of paramedics, it is even more important to get an ambulance to the scene in the first place, within the limits laid down by the patients charter? Is the Minister aware that in London in the summer there was an average of 50 occasions a day when ambulances arrived more than 26 minutes after they were called? Does the Minister not realise, from the answers that were given last Friday, that all ambulance authorities in the country comply with the 90 per cent. standard of response times, other than the London ambulance service, which achieved 58 per cent? Will he persuade the Secretary of State for Health to see the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to assure him that it costs more to run an ambulance service in London and to tell him that more money should be made available to the London ambulance service to enable it to meet the standards of the patients charter?

Mr. Sackville

I am aware of the sad fact that, almost uniquely in the country, the London ambulance service has not managed to come near the targets set down in the patients charter. I appreciate that there are special problems in London. There is a new management structure for the central area—where many of the problems occur—which will receive extra resources. With good will on all sides, there is no reason why the London ambulance service should not meet the targets achieved elsewhere in the country.

Mr. Jacques Arnold

Is not one of the advantages of putting a paramedic on every frontline emergency ambulance that he can assess the case and take the patient to the most appropriate trauma centre, particularly to local casualty units such as the Gravesend and North Kent hospital?

Mr. Sackville

My hon. Friend is right to point to the possibility of trauma units. We have funded centrally the trauma unit at Stoke so that ambulance paramedics can pre-assess the most serious cases, bypass certain district accident and emergency units and take patients to a hospital where a special trauma team can be assembled. We are fairly certain that that experiment will show that it is possible greatly to increase the chances of survival after the most serious accidents.