12 October 2022
Justice and Home Affairs has released details of a new Ambulance Response Programme (ARP)
that will improve patient care and enable the service to deal with peaks in demand and
unexpected events.
The rationale for introducing the new clinical response model is that it will improve patient care
and survival and is the result of the largest global study of an ambulance system ever completed
prior to its introduction in England. The new system, which has been modified for local conditions,
ensures that the most appropriate response is provided to patients, while also enabling the service
to deal with unexpected events and peaks in demand.
Using a set of questions designed to measure the seriousness of the incident, call handlers will be
alerted to the potential of a patient with an immediately life-threatening emergency (C1) much
earlier in the call cycle. This allows the service to dispatch a faster medical response to lifethreatening conditions, particularly cardiac arrest.
It is also designed so that call handlers will have more time to assess 999 calls that are not
believed to be immediately life-threatening, allowing them to identify patients’ needs better and
send the most appropriate response first time. Emergency responders may also benefit by having
fewer disturbed rest periods as ARP is embedded across Jersey.
The key benefits of the new Clinical Response Model are:
• Ensuring a timely response to patients with life-threatening conditions
• Providing the right clinical resources to meet the needs of patients based on presenting
conditions
• Provide more clinical cover for multiple life-threatening conditions
• Reducing the diversion of resources
• To assist in the reduction of late finishes and missed rest periods for staff