Paramedics will offer advanced service

A&E Care: Irish ambulance crews will soon be able to do a lot more to help their patients, following the introduction of an advanced paramedic training programme.

The first batch of ambulance personnel began their training in September and will graduate next May. The 16 students have already completed a diploma in emergency medical technology care and have spent more than three years in the workforce.

The new graduates will also be known as paramedics for the first time. While viewers of medical dramas will be familiar with the term "paramedic" it had never been officially used in this State until now. Instead, the workers were known as emergency medical technicians.

Currently, ambulance crews are very limited in what they can do to help their patients. While they are very skilled in basic life support techniques, they are only allowed to dispense four drugs: aspirin and GTN spray for chest pain, gas and air for pain relief and glucose gel to raise blood sugar levels.

From next May, advanced paramedics will be able to administer 18 drugs, including medication for cardiac patients, asthmatics and people suffering seizures.

They will also be able to set up drips to administer intravenous fluids and will be able to ventilate people with advanced airway techniques.

The advanced training course involves three months distance learning, followed by five months in the classroom, on hospital placements, and working in ambulances.

The course is being run by the National Ambulance Training School in the Phoenix Park in conjunction with University College, Dublin.

The Statutory Instrument clearing the way for this expanded service has been signed into law after passing through the Houses of the Oireachtas in recent weeks.

Dr Geoff King, director of the Pre-hospital Emergency Care Council said the new training programme was a seminal event for pre-hospital emergency care in Ireland.

"This is going to be great," he said. "So much work has gone into preparing the course and making the legal changes required. It's good to see it finally happening. There is a lot of interest in it out there."

He said the new skills would make a major difference to the experience of patients and would help the work of accident and emergency personnel.

The experience of other countries had been taken into account, he said and hopefully this had resulted in the best possible model for advanced paramedic training.

The advanced course will be open to new students every three months from next January onwards.

More than 600 members of the emergency services have been conferred with the Diploma of Emergency Medical Technology since UCD and the National Ambulance Training School began delivering its tertiary training programme for emergency personnel in 1996.