Alliance Party Health spokesperson Paula Bradshaw MLA has said it is essential that the Air Ambulance has a doctor on board to give patients immediate care.
Ms Bradshaw has been supporting the Dr John Hinds HEMS Committee, led by Dr Janet Acheson, in their campaign to ensure that the Air Ambulance is established as a Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Service.
Ms Bradshaw said: “I firmly support this campaign to ensure that the only model that is feasible, from the start, will be a ‘Doctor-Paramedic Model’. The additional skills that such a model will have will ensure that those patients affected will have a critical-care trained doctor providing them with the medical intervention that they require in situ, as opposed to trying to transport them to hospital in the quickest possible time. This point-of-contact intervention will undoubtedly result in better outcomes for patients, for example, those experiencing head trauma from a road traffic accident.
“I am, therefore, calling on the Health Minister to ensure that the model delivered in 2017 is in line with world-wide best practice and puts the needs of the patient at the head of the service.”