UNISON Cymru/Wales has welcomed the hard-hitting report that calls for major changes to the running of the Welsh Ambulance Service.
But the union has reservations about the report’s proposal to separate patient care services from ambulance services, handing responsibility for the former to local health boards.
A strategic review of Welsh ambulance services was ordered last year by then health minister Lesley Griffiths, following months of deteriorating performance, with the service failing to meet targets for response times to urgent calls.
Led by health academic Professor Siobhan McClelland, the review suggests that the service was undermined by poor accountability and complex and unclear management systems.
The report makes no specific recommendations on how response times should be managed. But it does call for a revamp of performance targets, and for paramedics to receive additional training that would enable them to make immediate decisions about patient care.
Dawn Bowden, UNISON Cymru/Wales head of health, said: “UNISON had lengthy discussions with our members in the ambulance sector prior to this report being published.
“They feel that the majority of recommendations would be suitable and were in fact part of the submission that UNISON made to the review.
“We positively welcome the recommendation to give additional training to paramedics that would enable them to make clinical decisions at the scene.
“Our ambulance members believe that this would provide a commonsense strategy to help reduce the current over-reliance on accident and emergency hospital departments.”
UNISON regional organiser Darren Dupre reflected the union’s concerns about what the report describes as the “disaggregation” of patient care and ambulance services.
“UNISON believes that this could cause real problems. Our members in patient care services are clear that they should remain with the ambulance service,” he said.
“Patient care services are an integral part of managing unscheduled care, and thus are a key part of ambulance services.
“Our view is that moving patient care services to local health board could lead to them being outsourced to the private or third sector and we have serious concerns about what impact this would have on nationally coordinated resilience in the event of a disaster or terrorist attack.
“UNISON is clear that this would not be in the interests of the NHS in Wales, the NHS workforce nor, most significantly, the public.”
