An emergency care assistant (ECA) is a type of NHS ambulance service worker in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, often used to support

paramedic A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research. Not all ambulance personnel are p ...

s in responding to emergency calls. This frontline staff role was introduced in 2006 as part of the modernisation of

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

emergency

ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...

s and also to lower costs. By 2011 there were 2000 people working as ECAs in the United Kingdom. The role has varied scope across the country, as it is defined by the local ambulance service policy, although the role primarily involves assisting ambulance clinicians. ECAs are trained with emergency driving skills. They may carry out basic diagnostic procedures under the direct supervision of a paramedic. The

College of Paramedics The College of Paramedics is the recognised professional body for paramedics in the United Kingdom. The role of the College is to promote and develop the paramedic profession across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The college rep ...

does not expect ECAs to be required to make complex clinical decisions.

Implementation

Each regional ambulance service determines its own criteria around what is needed to become an ECA. They are amongst the lowest paid front line staff in the NHS, typically being paid at AfC band 3 or 4. Ambulance crew unions and a range of healthcare professionals have expressed reservations about having ambulance services employ a large number of ECAs, both before and after the change. Unions representing ambulance workers had fears that the workforce changes could lead to an increase in the risk to patients as well as adding to the workload of paramedics and had written to East Midlands Ambulance Service to ask for the reintroduction of the technician role. Another issue is the amount of driving an ECA has to do during a 12-hour shift, as driving time regulations do not apply to emergency services. Whilst either of the crew members may drive when responding to an emergency case, the paramedic is more likely to attend a patient during an emergency transport, meaning that the ECA is likely to do more driving. In December 2014, after a steep rise in the number of paramedics on long term sick leave suffering stress, Yorkshire Ambulance Service said they would be bringing back the technician role.

Career development

There is a route for some ECAs to progress to Technician level. A training programme is run by the East of England Ambulance NHS Trust (EEAST) which aims to help ECAs progress to technician within 1 year of their basic training; by November 2015, most ECAs working for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) have made the transition from ECA to Technician on this programme. ECAs who wish to progress to become a paramedic will need to complete a University degree, Some employers do provide structured training to support this, with an expectation that it would take at least two and a half years for an ECA to complete this on a part-time basis.

References

External links

www.emergencycareassistant.co.uk
__NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Emergency Care Assistant Emergency medical responders Ambulance services in the United Kingdom