New UK Bill puts audiences at risk with ambulance reforms

Rick Player, director of the Independent Ambulance Association (IAA), has exclusively told Access All Areas that the proposed  Deregulation Bill – which has now progressed to the House of Lords - would likely push deaths at events per year into the double digits.  “I don’t want to sound overly dramatic, but the effect [that the bill] will have is that people will die as a result of it,” he said.  Section 36 of the Bill states that emergency ambulance services from private providers will be limited to the “request of an NHS ambulance service”. AAA says that In plain terms, private emergency providers would not be able to transport patients from events to hospitals without the explicit request from the NHS.  Paul Reed of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) called the proposed legislation in its current form “deeply illogical and potentially dangerous.