Advanced Paramedic Practitioners
Our Advanced Paramedic Practitioners (APPs) undergo additional education, have further skills and carry additional medicines to help us give patients the best care for their needs.
We have two types of APP – Advanced Paramedics in Critical Care and Advanced Paramedics in Urgent Care.
Advanced Paramedics in Critical Care
Our Advanced Paramedic Practitioners in Critical Care (APP-CC) treat the most seriously ill and injured patients – including patients in cardiac arrest and with serious traumatic injuries.
They also attend complex maternity calls, or challenging cases where enhanced decision making is required.
They have additional post-graduate education and carry extra medicines and equipment.
The team are based out of Westminster, Croydon, Brent and Ilford Ambulance stations.
The APP-CC function allows for 24 hour a day cover and there will usually be around three to five APPs-CCs on shift to respond across the entirety of the Service’s geographical area.
There will also be one APP-CC in our Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).
The APPs-CC in the EOC will monitor 999 calls to see where the skills of their fellow advanced paramedics could be required and will dispatch the APPs-CC who are in response cars to patients.
They can also speak to callers to provide clinical advice and to learn more about the patient’s condition to make a judgement on whether an APP-CC should be dispatched.
Advanced paramedics at London Ambulance Service celebrated their 10th anniversary in May 2024 – a decade in which the specialist team has given patients life-saving treatment and care that otherwise would only be attempted in hospital by doctors.
Advanced Paramedics in Urgent Care
Our Advanced Paramedic Practitioners in Urgent Care (APP-UC) respond to a variety of different calls for patients with a variety of illnesses and injuries.
They have an advanced level of clinical practice in terms of assessment, clinical decision making, diagnosis and treatment provision, having completed, or are working towards, a Master’s Degree in Advanced Practice. They are also able to prescribe some medicines.
Their extra post-graduate education, skills and the medicines they carry mean they are able to treat more patients in their own homes, rather than in hospital – so a trip to the emergency department can be avoided.
Our Advanced Paramedics in Urgent Care respond across the capital each day.
There are usually seven APP-UC working in our response cars, as well as two in our Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).
Here, the APP-UC will monitor 999 calls to see where the skills of their fellow advanced paramedics could be required and will dispatch the APPs-UC who are in response cars to patients.
They can also speak to callers to provide clinical advice and to learn more about the patient’s condition to make a judgement on whether an APP-UC should be dispatched.
On scene, our APPs-UC conduct a thorough assessment of the patient’s condition and provide the right treatment for the diagnosis.
They aim to treat and keep the patient home or within their community as much as possible.
As well as this, they work closely with other healthcare providers in the capital, rotating across different clinical settings outside of the ambulance service, such as General Practice, Urgent Care Centres and Minor injury units.
This means that the APP-UC is able to apply what they learn in one area to another, benefiting all the patients they see across London.
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