Minister makes paramedics admission

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Health Minister Andy Burnham's admission will be broadcast on ITV1's Tonight With Trevor McDonald.

The programme "999 Lottery" claims that the ambulance service is at crisis point because of a paramedic shortage and that a patient's chance of being treated by a paramedic is based on a 'postcode lottery'.

It also claims that patients' needs come second to ambulance staff meeting government response targets.

Tonight obtained figures under the Freedom of Information Act which reveal that London has the lowest number of paramedics and Wales the highest. In London 34% of frontline ambulance staff are paramedics and 61% are paramedics in Wales

Most ambulance services are staffed by Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), according to the programme. Unlike paramedics, EMTs are not permitted to carry out invasive clinical procedures and cannot dispense a wide variety of drugs.

An Accident and Emergency consultant told Tonight that the different levels of training and qualifications between a paramedic and an EMT can make the difference between life and death.

Mr Burnham told Tonight: "In some cases, sometimes tragic cases, the right level of skilled staff do not arrive at those cases and what we have to do is put in place procedures so that the scope of that happening in the future is taken away."

He denied Tonight's claims that the Government's eight-minute response target put patients at risk.

Tonight With Trevor McDonald is on ITV1 at 8pm on Monday.