Copyright 2006 LRD Publications Ltd
Labour Research
The High Court has dismissed a claim that firefighters are required to attend medical emergencies on behalf of the ambulance service.
Following attempts to introduce ‘co-responder’ schemes at Retford Fire Station in Nottinghamshire and Grantham Fire Station in Lincolnshire, fire authorities applied to the court for a declaration that this formed part of the duties that firefighters could be called upon to undertake under local fire safety plans.
The FBU firefighters’ union resisted the claim. Under a co-responder scheme, if an ambulance cannot be dispatched to attend a life-threatening injury or illness within the required eight-minute response time, the ambulance service can call on the fire service, which can get there more quickly.
Firefighters then administer emergency first aid until the ambulance arrives.
As long as the fire appliance has arrived within the eight minutes, the ambulance is also recorded as having attended within that time, even if it arrives later. Firefighters already carry out first aid if they encounter medical emergencies in the normal line of duty at fire and road traffic incidents.
But, the FBU argued, this is not the same as requiring them to attend medical emergencies as part of their job.
The High Court agreed, and dismissed the claim. The FBU has made it clear that fire authorities are free to raise the issue nationally for discussion, during which the key issues of training standards, funding and attendance targets can be discussed.
However, FBU general secretary Matt Wrack has commented that, as the scheme currently operates, co-responding is part of the problem facing the ambulance service rather than being the solution.