Brae service looks for retained ambulance technician

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is holding an informal public meeting in Brae Public Hall at 7.30pm on Friday for anyone interested in training to become a retained ambulance technician.

Representatives from the SAS seek to recruit eight people for the service, to be based in Brae. The SAS staff will explain what the job entails and will be available to answer any questions.

The move to follows a campaign by concerned islanders to increase ambulance provision. The ambulance service announced in May that it would provide a second ambulance for Shetland, crewed with retained team trained to ambulance technician standard.

The retained team will be dispatched when the full time staff are unavailable, or their arrival could delay treatment.

They will also respond to those calls that are clinically assessed as less serious, leaving the full time paramedic team available for more urgent cases.

An SAS spokesman said: “The meeting is to dispel any confusion over what exactly the SAS wants to achieve in a retained service in Brae and allay any fears for potential patients in the Brae area if they feel uneasy at this new concept.”

Meanwhile the SAS is embarking on the most extensive national consultation programme it has ever undertaken to inform the way future ambulance care will be delivered, and will ask for feedback on four key areas:

•    How patients access emergency and unscheduled care and the best way to route the patient to the most appropriate care service;

•    New ways of working to deliver higher standards of care in remote and rural areas;

•    The best way to deliver a quality non-emergency service to take patients to and from their hospital outpatient clinics;

•    How the service can contribute more to health and social care in Scotland.

Acting SAS chief executive Pauline Howie said: “This is the most ambitious consultation that the service has ever undertaken. The feedback from the project will be hugely important in shaping the development of ambulance care for the people of Scotland.

“The consultation process will continue through June and July, and we will produce a strategic framework in September. This will then allow us to establish a clear plan for the future of the service.”

Anyone who would like to contribute to the consultation should call (0131) 446 7072, contact sas.strategy@nhs.net or write to: Our Future Strategy, Scottish Ambulance Service NHQ, Tipperlinn Road, Edinburgh, EH10 5UU.