Wellington Free Ambulance / What We Do / Urgent Community Care

In May 2009 Wellington Free Ambulance (WFA) launched its Urgent Community Care (UCC) scheme, using Extended Care Paramedics (ECPs) in the Kapiti region north of Wellington.

These paramedics provide care for the large volume of patients who call 111, but may not require hospital based emergency treatment.  ECPs are trained to use a detailed and holistic model of patient assessment, and will interact closely with carers, whänau, GPs, district nursing services and hospital, to provide the best solution for each individual patient.

ECPs need strong interpersonal as well as clinical skills, self motivation and the desire to learn and develop the new role.

On 26th April 2010, in the presence of Hon Tony Ryall, Hon Nathan Guy, and Kapiti Mayor Jenny Rowan, WFA celebrated two significant milestones:  in excess of one thousand patients attended by UCC, and more significantly the implementation of a 24/7 service with additional funding allocated by the Minister of Health.

Of these 1072 patients, a remarkable 696 have been managed in their community setting.  Patient and community satisfaction has been high, and no adverse or sentinel events have been attributed to the UCC model of care.  Project performance is closely monitored, and further research is under way to establish whether this is a true avoidance of emergency department attendance and hospital admission, or whether patients were hospitalised subsequently.

This first year of positive results for the UCC Kapiti pilot demonstrates the potential effectiveness of a new urgent care role for New Zealand.