Mr. Robert Morton:

There are two key reasons. One has been touched on by my colleague Mr. Healy. On the one hand, we were training more advanced paramedics each year and we had reached a point where we had over 400 advanced paramedics engaged in the National Ambulance Service. Of that 400, what we were seeing was a decrease in the number of patients benefiting from advanced paramedics. In fact, it dropped from 79% of patients who needed advanced paramedic care down to 75%, even though we were training more. At the same time, we were seeing an increase in the number of patients who did not need an advanced paramedic care having an advanced paramedic arriving on scene. That speaks to deployment. We have an issue around deployment and that was the issue we wrote to our trade union partners on. We informed them that we needed to unpick these issues. They are quite complex because people who have engaged in advanced paramedic training are expected to go back to where they came from even though that is perhaps not where they are required. That is the work that has been part and parcel of the roles and responsibilities piece. The idea of creating a new role called "specialist paramedic" gives us much more freedom and it means that is the task the person is dedicated to. Deployment is a lot easier.