Seriously ill patients will receive even better treatment from South East Coast Ambulance Service when it introduces a new specialist paramedic role.

The trust is just one of two in the country to be introducing the Critical Care Paramedic (CCP). The CCPs will respond by ambulance, response car or air ambulance to the most serious 999 emergencies. They will be able to provide advanced care and treatments previously unavailable in conventional paramedic training such as advanced resuscitation skills and drug therapy.

With the introduction of CCPs, potentially hundreds of lives nation-wide could be saved and many more patients could have improved outcomes.

In 1992, a study of 1088 injured patients showed that 430 died prior to arrival at hospital and a further 309 following treatment. Re-evaluation showed that of the 309, 46 deaths were possibly avoidable with extended clinical skills. This means, that if this practice was adopted across the country, more than 770 deaths would be avoidable per year. Clinical Director, Andy Newton, said:

“The trust recognises that more can and should be done to support the small number of patients suffering life-threatening injuries. This is why, in partnership with Kent Air Ambulance and Medway’s Critical Care Network, we are introducing critical care paramedics.”

“The NHS is changing and clinical practices are developing rapidly so it is even more important that patients get the right treatment in the right environment. The critical care paramedics will help us achieve this.”

As part of the Medway Maritime Hospital’s critical care network team, they will support and be trained by
critical care doctors and nurses to undertake hospital transfers for the small number of patients with life threatening conditions.

Catherine Plowright, Consultant Nurse Critical Care, Medway NHS Trust and Chair of Kent and Medway Critical Care Network Transfer Group said:

“As part of the Kent and Medway Critical Care Network, the Accident and Emergency Department and the critical care areas of Medway NHS Trust, we are looking forward to supporting and training these new CCPs.”

“Once trained, these new paramedics will be valuable members of the team who will be involved in transfers of patients who are critically ill. We envisage that these CCPs will support staff with transferring patients from the accident and emergency department and the critical care areas across Kent and
Medway.“

They will also be working on the air ambulances either independently or alongside doctors. Chief executive of Kent Air Ambulance, David Philpott said:

“We are delighted to work with the ambulance service and be one of the first to fly with CCPs. We believe that early intervention at the scene is essential and the CCPs working alongside specialist doctors on the Air Ambulance is the way forward. “

The six paramedics, all with five or more years’ experience, will begin a year’s diploma course in critical care with Hertfordshire University in September. Once they have completed their course they will operate across Kent, Surrey and Sussex.