Health Service Journal (HSJ)
ESSEX, England — Concerns are growing over the number of times police are stepping in to take patients to hospital instead of ambulance crews.
Police officers are increasingly concerned that they are having to cover when ambulances are required after an accident or crime. This has come at a time, according to a national officers’ group, when police resources are “stretched to near capacity”.
The chairman of the police federation of England and Wales, Steve Williams, claimed the calls are no longer isolated.
He commented: “Let me be clear, the police will continue to respond to those who need us as soon as possible, and if this means responding when the ambulance service is unable to do so, then we will support our partners and the public eagerly.”
Mr Williams continued on the wider point that the government and emergency services have to address the resourcing issue and wider public safety concerns.
The comments from the police group leader came after ambulance services in the east of England were identified as needing particular assistance from the police. Essex police federation chairman Mark Smith said that his officers had to intervene almost every day.
He commented: “We are having to convey to hospital almost daily in Essex at the moment. We are not pointing the finger at paramedics and ambulance crews, they are going through cuts as the police are going through cuts.
“The paramedics and ambulance staff join to do a job and I feel they, like us, are not able to do the job in the best way they can to serve the public.”
It was claimed that a pregnant woman in Essex was told she had to wait four hours for an ambulance and when police conveyed her to hospital, the car had to be stopped several times for her to vomit because of the pain.
Mr Smith explained that the police were not paramedics, and whilst they could offer life support through their own training, they could only hold the fort until the professionals turned up.
However, Mr Smith reiterated the police’s stance: “If they’re not turning up and we’ve got seriously injured people we’re not going to let those people down. But police officers have their own job to do and while we are conveying people to hospital we cannot do that job, and if the vehicle is covered in blood then it will be off the road.
“I want to raise this now and tell people what’s happening so it can be tackled before people have to die.”
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