Concerns are being raised for patient safety as new rules see paramedics asked to team up with less experienced staff on the job in this part of the county.
Typically two fully trained paramedics or advanced paramedics would be on board an ambulance but gaps in staffing mean intermediary care operatives or ICOs are being asked to join paramedics on shift.
TheJournal.ie is reporting that it’s prompted worry around the standard of care being delivered. (See full article here).
Reporter Garreth MacNamee on KCLR Live today said the concerns are around the lack of experience ICOs might have in certain scenarios; “The way of explaining to me was you know these people mightn’t have come across their fair share of very serious accidents, road traffic accidents where, you know, I won’t go into details of what people might see during these times but you know they wouldn’t have experience of very traumatic incidents where they would have usually just been transporting people in for intermediate care so transferring from hospitals to two different hospitals, that kind of thing”.
He adds that discussions which may lead to a resolution are due; “My understanding of it at the moment is it’s it’s back at the table with the unions with UNITE and SIPTU who represent the vast majority of paramedics and those in the healthcare sector who like the ICOs, so at the moment it is the arrangement to continue to work with one paramedic and one ICO but the unions are going back to the table with NAS management I believe this week to discuss potential changes or going back to the old method”.
