Pedalling paramedics

By Kofi Akumanyi

THE first bicycle-ambulance experiment in the United Kingdom has given a new meaning to the phrase "pedal power".

The top-range BMX bicycle, ridden by former British and European BMX champion Tom Lynch, was equipped with flashing blue lights, a siren, a defibrillator and oxygen to speed through London's city centre traffic responding to emergency medical calls.

As a paramedic, Tom Lynch operated in an area of one square kilometre around Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square, Soho and Covent Garden, a district which includes many pedestrianised roads. The service was targeted at calls where a patient required urgent medical assistance, as well as cases that were thought not to require an ambulance.

The short-term trial recently ended and the London Ambulance Service (LAS) is evaluating it and, if found successful, will extend it to other parts of the city.

"The traffic can obviously be very bad and the fact that ambulances cannot easily use a lot of the streets makes it even more difficult to get to calls," said Lynch.

Motorcyles ridden by paramedics are also used to help overcome problems caused by heavy traffic in central London. They have played a vital role since 1992 in reaching critically ill patients -- such as heart-attack victims -- in the fastest possible time, often within eight minutes.

The Accident and Emergency Service responds to about 1500 calls each day and the Patient Transport Service deals with a daily average of 3800 non-urgent patient journeys.

To provide this level of service the LAS employs more than 3000 staff: 1200 accident and emergency staff including 670 paramedics, 300 control staff, 400 patient-transport care assistants and 500 support staff including fleet support, administration and management.

Its fleet of more than 700 vehicles includes 391 accident and emergency ambulances, 344 patient transport vehicles and 10 motorcycles.