Over the last 10 or so years we have seen new roles emerging in the NHS such as Nurse Practitioner (NP), Emergency Nurse Practitioner (ENP), Urgent Care Practitioner (UCP), Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP), and Community Matrons (CM) to name a few; all come under the Nursing and Midwifery Council Registration (NMC).

Our colleagues in the Ambulance Sector have also embraced change on the back of various reports and studies; which suggested Ambulance Paramedics were in an ideal position to be “up skilled” and help reduce unnecessary ambulance transports and hospital admissions.

Paramedics are experts at dealing with life threatening events and serious Trauma however the “Taking Healthcare to the Patient report published in 2005” suggested that only 10% of all 999 calls were to patients suffering a life threatening event.

That left a huge pool of patients that Paramedics are not trained to deal with; so on the back of this some Paramedics have received intensive University based training in advanced patient assessment skills that follow the Medical Model of Enquiry.

They have also completed the Managing Minor Injury in First Contact Care and the Managing Minor Illness in First Contact Care modules and a range of other Modules to support each of the developing roles; such as Mentorship; these modules are the same courses that ENP’s and Advanced Nurses take to work in Urgent Care Centre’s.

The new roles such as Emergency Care Practitioners (ECP) and Paramedic Practitioners (PP) are contributing to improved patient satisfaction, safely treating patients in there own home were appropriate, avoiding unnecessary hospital attendances and reducing the demand in the Emergency Department as well as costs in general. Helping to reform emergency care and take healthcare to the patient with the right skill at the right time and working in partnership with other community based Urgent and Unscheduled NHS and Social care providers.

Clearly here we have a merging of roles and the “overlapping” of traditional boundaries and recognition of skills; with the overall bonus of improved patient care and reduced costs, especially in the current economic climate, however as Paramedics are registered with the Health Professions Council (HPC), the NMC does not recognise the HPC registration, so we have a situation were the potential merging of roles, the overlapping of traditional boundaries and reduced costs is in effect “Blocked” by bureaucracy.

Is it not time as registered professionals to have one registered body to enable the best utilization of our NHS staff and allow staff to migrate freely around the NHS system?

With retirement age increased to 68 can you really see a 68 year old Paramedic rushing up three flights of stairs with all kit and equipment to resuscitate a patient?

If the HPC and NMC were to recognise each others professional status then a young Nurse could with a minor conversion migrate into the Paramedic Role and similarly an ageing Paramedic unable to meet the rigors of the role could take a less demanding role within the NHS rather than having to be forced to retire early.

If NMC are recruiting to lots of newly devised posts they will only be apeing what NHS Hospital Trusts appear to be getting away with...  there are so many new management or management support roles that provide no obvious practical enhancement to the user's (patient) experience.

I would be all for amalgamating all frontline workers from whatever background particularly as the roles becomes homogenised.