Great Western Ambulance Service is playing Russian roulette by crewing ambulances with staff who are trained in just basic first aid skills, a paramedic has claimed.

The Gazette has been told by a paramedic working in Wiltshire that on Sunday night ambulances were staffed by two emergency care assistants instead of one crew member being an ambulance technician or paramedic.

Emergency care assistants can give oxygen and use an automatic defibrillator but cannot administer drugs unlike a technician or paramedic.

The paramedic, who has asked to remain anonymous, said: “Crewing an ambulance with just emergency care assistants is like Russian roulette for patients and double crewing them is happening on a more regular basis.

“Their job is to assist a technician or paramedic and drive the ambulance.

“If an ambulance with just emergency care assistants on it turned up to treat a member of my family I would not be happy about it.

“Patients who appear stable can suddenly deteriorate and if you have a crew of emergency care assistants patients’ lives will potentially be put at risk. Emergency care assistants can administer oxygen but cannot give drugs.

“On Sunday two emergency care assistants were waiting with a patient for a paramedic to arrive.

“The management will say that emergency care assistant crews will be backed up immediately by a higher skilled crew but that crew could be an hour away. I suspect employing emergency care assistants is a cost cutting exercise.”

Emergency care assistants earn between £15,000 and £18,000 and undergo a six to nine week training course. Ambulance technicians earn between £17,000 and £21,000 and undergo a 12 week training course.

The technician role is being phased out nationally while the role of emergency care assistant is expanding.

Great Western Ambulance Service has 236 emergency care assistants, 204 ambulance technicians and 351 paramedics.

Nationally Unison has called for emergency care assistants not to be deployed on front line ambulances unless they are trained up to technician level.

Ian Whittern, chairman of the Great Western Unison branch, said: “Emergency care assistants are not fit for purpose although that is not a criticism of the individual.

“We are in dispute with the management at Great Western Ambulance Service over the use of emergency care assistants on front line ambulances and we are not happy they are being used to double crew ambulances.

“The public expect the NHS to have an ambulance crew that is trained to primarily treat patients.”

Devizes MP Michael Ancram said he would be taking up the matter urgently.

A Great Western Ambulance Service spokesman said that five double ambulance crews of emergency care assistants worked in Wiltshire last weekend, four on Saturday and one on Sunday.

He denied denied that using emergency care assistants was compromising patient safety but said double emergency care assistant crews are avoided where possible.

“We are planning to recruit more paramedics and our aim is to have a paramedic on every ambulance vehicle,” he said.

“Emergency care assistants have more enhanced skills than community first responders but they can’t administer drugs or intubate.”