Fife's Urgent Tier Service

Fifes Urgent Tier Service

Fife introduced an Urgent Tier Service in August 2001 to deal with non Emergency Transfers from East Fife into the Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline.

The idea behind this was to relieve Accident and Emergency Crews of time consuming transfers throughout Fife, thus enabling faster response times to Emergency calls.

The Crews: The Crews selected for these positions are made up of a qualified Ambulance Technician or Paramedic and a member of the Patient Transport Service (PTS).

The PTS Person must be fully up to date with all A+E procedures and be familiar with all equipment used by A+E Crews.

They must also be in possession of a current A+E exam pass mark.

These personnel are then taken for a driving and Ambulance Aid assessment before being allowed to work on Urgent Tier, thus enabling the best form of Pre Hospital Care for the Patient.

Occasionally, Urgent Crews will be dispatched to Emergency Calls as a first response, where they will provide primary care and apply life saving techniques until an A+E crew become available and are dispatched as a back up to assist in the treatment of a casualty.

The Vehicles: Vehicles being used for Urgent Tier are older A+E units which were about to go out of service but were recalled to fill the requirements of the newly formed post.

We currently use 2002 /2003 Mercedes Sprinters which are exactly the same as A&E vehicles.

An Urgent Tier Vehicle

The equipment on board includes 1x 'STRYKER' & 1x Super York 4 trolley cot, Vickers LS Defibrillator, Leardal suction unit, Vitalograph hand held suction unit, Oxygen therapy equipment, Entonox, Stiffneck Collars, Kendrick Extrication Device (K.E.D), TRAC 3- traction splint, Carry Chair, Orthopaedic Stretcher and much more.

The 'STRYKER' Trolleys are designed to take some of the weight out of lifting heavy patients in and out a vehicle all day.

(Urgent Tier evaluating the Rugged STRYKER M1)

"I'd been with the Service for 12 years, I can honestly say that this is one of the best pieces of equipment I had ever used. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the evaluation for the RUGGED STRYKER M1 TROLLEY COT and could not believe how easy it was to load and unload the with a patient on, it's designed for one man operation but our SOP's require two men to be involved in any stretcher case.

The Super York 4 trolley cot was a great Trolley but with very little changes over the years and still required a lot of bending and heavy lifting.

You can see the STRYKER M1 in use below.

"Broadband required for above picture"

I was part of Fifes Urgent Tier from November 2001 until 12th of May 2002 when I started my A+E training at the Scottish Ambulance College, Barony Castle in the Borders of Scotland.

I think Urgent Tier is a good stepping stone for any PTS Personnel wishing to push their career forward to Accident + Emergency Technician level.

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