Press Release
5th July 2001
Greenock Paramedic Levels to Rise
MSP for Greenock & Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, has welcomed confirmation from the Chief Executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service, Adrian Lucas, that the number of paramedics on board Greenock's Ambulances is set to rise.
"Paramedics perform an important role in our health service - they are the advance troops leading the NHS front line," Mr McNeil said today. "I am therefore pleased the Scottish Ambulance Service is taking action to encourage more of its staff to take on this challenging role."
Mr McNeil raised the matter with Mr Lucas following recent press reports which claimed that there is only one fully qualified paramedic based at Greenock Ambulance Station.
Mr Lucas has assured Mr McNeil that there are in fact two fully qualified paramedics based at the station and that action is being taken to increase this number, so that by 2005 every frontline accident and emergency ambulance will have a paramedic on board.
This is being done, says Mr Lucas, through "developing an action plan" which will not only ensure that the service has enough paramedics, but that they are dispersed throughout Scotland in such a way that will "facilitate the crewing of one in every frontline ambulance."
"I congratulate the Ambulance Service on this ambitious target and will be keeping a close eye on the service's progress towards meeting it," said Mr McNeil.
"I also welcome the news that the action plan will specifically target areas such as Inverclyde where the numbers wishing to work towards becoming paramedics have been low. I was pleased to see that the Ambulance Service's National Training Manager recently visited Greenock Ambulance Station and, as a result, at least four staff have indicated their willingness to sit the pre-entry Paramedic Training Examination next month.
"I wish these ambulance staff every success in their training and look forward to this delivering real results - for both the staff themselves and for the wider community."
ENDS
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