Student Paramedic Intake - 2014

The request was successful.

Dear FOI Officer for East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust,

Please treat this e-mail via WhatDoTheyKnow.com as a request for information under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.

1) How many front line staff do the trust currently employ, as full time equivalents, broken down into the following roles? I) Emergency Care Assistant (ECA) ii) Trainee Emergency Medical Technician (Trainee EMT) iii) Qualified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) iv) Student Ambulance Paramedic (SAP) v) Qualified Student Ambulance Paramedic (QSAP) vi) Paramedic vii) Specialist Paramedic (ECP or CCP)

2) How many new staff do the trust plan to recruit in the 2014/15 financial year, broken down into the following roles? I) Emergency Care Assistant ii) Trainee Emergency Medical Technician iii) Qualified Emergency Medical Technician iv) Student Ambulance Paramedic v) Qualified Student Ambulance Paramedic vi) Paramedic vii) Specialist Paramedic (ECP or CCP)

3) How many new staff do the trust plan to recruit in the 2015/16 financial year, broken down into the following roles? I) Emergency Care Assistant ii) Trainee Emergency Medical Technician iii) Qualified Emergency Medical Technician iv) Student Ambulance Paramedic v) Qualified Student Ambulance Paramedic vi) Paramedic vii) Specialist Paramedic (ECP or CCP)

4) In respect of the Student Ambulance Paramedic role, it is my understanding that each student is required to pay £4500 towards their training, split into 30x £150 payments throughout each month of their training course. Can you confirm I) that the sum stated is correct ii) whether these payments are deducted before or after income tax & national insurance deductions iii) whether the trust has applied for funding from Health Education England (HEE) in respect of these charges, and if so, the full outcome of said application * iv) are there any circumstances in which the trust envisages it may be in a position to refund such charges, e.g. course withdrawal, failure to achieve required standards, dismissal or resignation, receipt of further funding etc?

* = Please provide a copy of the full application to HEE and a full copy of the HEE decision outcome notification, if applicable.

5) In respect of the Student Ambulance Paramedic role, it is my understanding that for the first 12 months of their development they are not autonomously qualified and must work solely with a qualified clinician who is either an Emergency Medical Technician, Paramedic or Specialist Paramedic, in keeping with current situation regarding the operational deployment of ECAs and Trainee EMTs. Please can you confirm I) that this is true or false ii) the number of occasions that a SAP, ECA or Trainee EMT has been deployed to an incident on their own on a double staffed ambulance (DSA) ** iii) the number of occasions that a SAP, ECA or Trainee EMT has been deployed to an incident on their own on a rapid response vehicle (RRV) ** iv) the number of occasions that a SAP, ECA or Trainee EMT has been deployed to an incident whilst working with another SAP, ECA or Trainee EMT ** v) the number of adverse incidents raised relating to the deployment of unqualified clinicians either solo or alongside another unqualified clinician ** vi) the trust's position on which member of staff acts as the senior clinician responsible for decision making when the DSA crew consists of a mixture of either SAP, ECA or Trainee EMT.

** = Please only provide data from July 2014 onwards, except where such data is not yet available, in which case please substitute July 2014 with July 2011. If to retrieve this data would exceed 18 hours, please recover data for 30/11/2014 only. If no such data is recorded, please indicate whether the trust intends to start monitoring these figures going forward in order to spot trends that may affect patient safety.

6) In respect of the deployment of unqualified clinicians, please can you clarify the scope of practice of the following groups of staff, in terms of clinical interventions and administration of medications when working solo or alongside another unqualified clinician. Please refer only to interventions/medication administration, that the unqualified clinician can perform autonomously without having to request permission from the control room or on-call medical advisor. i) SAP ii) ECA iii) Trainee EMT

7) Please clarify whether SAPs, ECAs or Trainee EMTs are contractually obliged by trust policy and guidelines to respond to emergency calls where they are likely to be the first emergency resource on scene, particularly in the following circumstances. i) when requested to respond single manned on a DSA ii) when requested to respond single manned on a RRV iii) when requested to respond alongside another unqualified clinician in either a DSA or RRV *** iv) please clarify what the trust's position would likely be in respect of an unqualified clinician refusing to respond as the first person on scene to an emergency call unless working with a qualified clinician, if they felt to do so would be detrimental to patient safety and/or their own development, due to a lack of knowledge, experience or skill.

*** = Please provide, should they exist, a copy of current guidelines in relation to the deployment of solo or double crewed SAPs, ECAs or Trainee EMTs.

8) In previous SAP programmes, the trust has designated SAPs with 12 months experience and a completed portfolio as QSAPs, who are then deployed as a qualified clinician with the EMT scope of practice, both on RRVs and on DSAs, alongside unqualified clinicians as a front line emergency crew. Please confirm whether or not the trust plans to continue with this system from April 2015 onwards for the current SAP programme, and if not, please confirm how SAPs from the current programme will be deployed once they have achieved the full IHCD EMT award after 12 months.

9) For SAPs to gain registration as a Paramedic, they will be required to achieve a DipHE or FdSc award appropriately validated by the HCPC. Please provide details of i) which university(s) have been selected to deliver the course ii) length of the course iii) method of delivery e.g. distance learning, face-to-face iv) expected date of first intake v) expected cost to the trust vi) expected duration of stand down from shifts per student per course (in hours) vii) date of HCPC validation or date of submission to HCPC for validation

10) If the trust is unable to respond in full to Q9, please confirm the following. i) date that the contract for SAP higher education element was put out to tender to prospective universities ii) deadline for bids to be received by the trust iii) the number of universities still in negotiations with the trust regarding the current SAP programme iv) the expected conclusion date for current negotiations v) explanations for any delays in the tendering process vi) details of any due diligence safeguards put in place in the event of an unsuccessful or delayed ending to current negotiations, given the well publicised delays in the HE element of the trust's previous SAP programme, which was strongly criticised in Dr Marsh's report into the trust last year vii) please confirm the latest date which the trust anticipates it would need to enrol its first few cohorts of current SAPs in a HE programme to avoid delaying the entire programme beyond the expected 30 month time scale.

11) Please provide comprehensive details regarding the training package to be offered to i) Senior EMTs ii) Senior Paramedics (Mentor) iii) Senior Paramedics (Clinical)

12) Please provide details of any internal training (including place numbers, eligibility and course start dates) the trust intends to provide to enable current Paramedics to develop and progress towards Specialist Paramedic (ECP or CCP) roles.

I thank you in advance for your comprehensive response to this FOI request and I would be appreciative if you would kindly keep me up to date in the event of any delays in responding fully, as I appreciate that I am requesting a large volume of information

I look forward to your response.

Warmest Regards,
John Smith.

FOI, East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Dear John

Thank you for your email dated 8th December 2014 where you requested information regarding the East of England Ambulance Service.

Your request will be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and we will respond to you within twenty working days. Your request has been allocated the following reference: F18764 and I would be grateful if you could quote this reference in any future correspondence with the Trust.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

show quoted sections

Dear FOI Officer,

You will note that 20 working days has now since passed from the date of my original request for information, yet I have still not been sent the information requested, nor an explanation for the delay. This is contrary to the Freedom of Information Act.

Please consider this e-mail to be a formal request for an internal review into the reasons for the lack of timely response and lack of communication to indicate any expected delay.

I will then be in a position to consider whether this matter requires referral to the Information Commissioners Office.

Warmest Regards,

John Smith.

FOI, East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Dear John

Thank you for your email. The Trust will undertake your Internal Review as requested and will respond once completed.

Kind regards

FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

show quoted sections

Dear FOI Officer,

Despite over 40 working days passing since my original FOI request and 20 working days passing since my request for an internal review , I have yet to receive a relevant response from the Trust.

As a member of the public, I am appalled at the Trusts lacklustre approach to their legal responsibilities under UK legislation, specifically, their unlawful decision to withhold public information liable to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, without utilising an appropriate exemption.

Owing to the Trusts failure to engage with myself or communicate the reason behind any delay, I have now made a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office and I await the result of their investigation.

Warmest Regards,

John Smith

FOI, East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

1 Attachment

Dear John

Thank you for your email.

My apologies for the delay and the lack of communication regarding this. The FoI Officer has stated that it was their intention to contact you as soon as they knew when this information would be available should there be a delay. However once the deadline had passed they should have contacted you immediately anyway to make you aware of this; the FoI Officer accepts this and apologises for this lack of communication.

The delay in our response has been caused by the high workload of those responsible for collating this information, and the operational pressures on the Trust at this time.

The Trust agrees that such a delay and lack of communication is unacceptable. Please know that we are currently reviewing how we handle Freedom of Information requests to ensure that such delays do not occur regardless of other pressures within the Trust, and any delays are communicated in a more timely manner.

Please find attached the Trust's response to your request.

My apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Kind regards

Complaints and Claims Manager
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

show quoted sections