The review, “Transforming Urgent and Emergency Care Services in England,” was initiated following the increased pressure on, and worsening performance of, the emergency care system last winter and earlier this year. It recommends increased sharing of information and expertise among the three blue light services.
CFOA acknowledged the fire service’s important role as a partner to the ambulance service in emergency and immediate care, and said the body could play an enhanced role in a newly designed structure.
All three blue light services are already working together under the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP), which was created after the 7/7 bombings in London and other major emergency incidents and looks at how fire, police, and ambulance services can collaborate more effectively at the scene of major incidents.
The FRS believes that its approach in combining fire prevention and protection with a 24-hour response service to fires, road traffic collisions, and other emergencies has a lot to offer the other blue light services. It says this approach has driven down demand on its response resources and reduced fire deaths and injuries by over 50 percent in the last 10 years.
Paul Fuller, CFOA president, said:
A vision of better networked health systems, which will see information and expertise shared more widely and rapidly, will be vital, and we believe it is important that these extend to the FRS. We have already learned from our experiences of working with NHS Trusts locally that by sharing information we can provide a better service.
CFOA is already working closely with our colleagues from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to explore a more collaborative future, and we hope we can be similarly involved with the wider health services as we all focus on delivering the very best and most integrated services for the public.
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I think this is great news. More connectivity and collaboration between these services might help in terms of lowering response times and in sharing resources. It will be interesting to see how this will pan out.
I agree, this initiative is great in theory, and could well be in practice. Howewer, yesterday 19.1.14, a BBC report included a shocking story. A lady rang for an ambulance during the night. Her husband had a heart attack. There were NO ambulances available, and incredibly one reason given for the non arrival of the Em Amb was given as “Taking Mandatory Tea Breaks”. (I couldn`t believe it either)! What bit of “Emergency” does our Emergency Services NHS organisers NOT understand? I fail to see how even this excellent initiative will improves situations where Top Down Bureaucracy puts “procedures” before… Read more »