Policing paramedics: 185 trips in calendar year

ESSEX Police officers have been needed to take patients to hospital 185 times in the past year, figures have revealed.

The worst month last year was March, when 22 patients were conveyed to hospital because of “excessive ambulance delays” or “no shows”. In July, there were 20 such occasions and 21 in October.

The figures – obtained by the BBC – also show there were 121 incidents recorded as “excessive delays” in ambulances arriving at emergency incidents and 83 episodes classed as “inappropriate ambulance requests” of the police force.

Mark Smith, chairman of the Essex Police Federation, said: “This has been going on for more than a year now and those who can change it, haven’t.

“We are talking about people who really need to go to hospital, such as those involved in very serious road traffic accidents.”

He said he was “concerned” at the situation because officers were not only unable to do their policing duties when taking people to hospital but were ill-equipped to step in for paramedics.

He stressed he did not blame the front-line paramedics for the problem.

Tony Hughes, the GMB ambulance organiser for the eastern region, said: “We have heard about it and are obviously concerned, because the police aren’t there to deal with those types of injuries and conditions.

“Our members don’t tell us about it that often because it’s embarrassing for them, having to rely on police officers.

“The police are there to do a totally different job. In the East of England Ambulance Service there just aren’t enough staff to keep up with the demand that’s there.”

A spokesman for Essex Police said the force was “concerned” at the “increasing demand moving from the ambulance service onto police resources”.

He said: “We monitor incidents of this nature closely and it is correct to say that incidents have increased slightly over the past 12 months.”

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: “We recognise we do not currently have sufficient ambulances to respond to all emergency calls as quickly as we need to.

“Be assured that our staff are already working as hard has as they can, but we simply need more of them in order to improve our response times.”

Both Essex Police chief constable Steve Kavanagh and Police and Crime Commissioner Nick Alston have said they will back police officers forces to act as emergency ambulances.