Paramedic treatment—wherever that may be?

The ambulance service has always recognised that the sooner a clinician is with a patient and clinical interventions are performed the greater the chance of survival. This seems simple enough and is what every ambulance service throughout the world does each and every day; however, what if that patient is in a collapsed structure, contaminated environment, at height or in an area of flooding?

The Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) was created to overcome these problems, as previously the ambulance service relied on fire and rescue service (FRS) colleagues to bring casualties to them, which would cause an obvious delay in treatment.

The simple solution would be to increase the level of skills that a fire fighter has, but the training for a modern paramedic takes 3–4 years, with constant patient contact during that time being the order of the day. The days of simple interventions and transport to hospital are a thing of the past. Today's paramedic has a foundation degree in paramedic science and a level of clinical knowledge and skills that are the envy of the world in that they have a wide range of skills and are autonomous in their clinical practice. The HART programme takes the personal protective equipment used by FRS to deliver the clinician to the patient—wherever they may be.