Mike
You seem very sensible, in fact most paramedics/ECP's are. But however
as in medicine where you will get doctors of all grades practising
beyond their expertise, you are bound to get ECP acting out their
expertise. There are bound to be problems.
My main problem is in a resource limited system I can not see much money
being saved. At least as much as the Pete Bradeley claims will be seen.
Ambulances can be expensive taxis. But an ECP driving around the city
maybe seeing 5-8 patients in a shift with some being referred on is an
expensive reduplication of services. It is interesting in the case
histories they put in they put in all the positive pieces of research.
But miss out on research that did not show benefit. For example the one
by the London ambulance service which tried to reduce carriage of cat C
patients by empowering a group of paramedics to divert to alternative
providers. I think the end result was no difference compared to standard
practice. It is another example of wholesale changes being brought in
before the pilots have been evaluated. The effectiveness of the
Sheffield paramedic practitioner scheme has not been reported on but we
are moving to nationwide adoption of the changes.
The government likes to make popular changes even if they may not be the
most cost effective.
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