The National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) now has a full on-call capability whereby a NARU Senior Officer will provide national support to the wider ambulance service for any untoward incident or disruptive challenge that occurs outside of principal working hours.
Suitably qualified NARU Senior Officers are now participating in an on-call duty rota as designated ‘On-call Duty Officers’ in two blocks – one of 96 hours and one of 72 hours – over a 5 week period, during which time they must be immediately available to react.
Each On-call Duty Officer must meet the specific standards of competency which have been developed and maintained in all on-call officers in line with the Skills for Justice National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Ambulance Commanders.
Gerry Byrne, Senior Ambulance Advisor at NARU says: “The NARU on-call arrangements are a very positive step forward for the national ambulance service however they do not replace existing Trust’s, DH Crisis Consequence Management Centre’s (CCMC) or the National Ambulance Co-ordinating Centre’s (NACC) on-call arrangements and shouldn’t be activated as a first option when setting up for pre-planned events – unless the host organisation has exhausted its own capability.”
The NARU Director (Keith Prior) and Deputy Director (Mike Shanahan) will also provide additional NHS England Major Incident Control & Command support when required.
The on-call rota will operate from 08.00 on Monday until 08:00 on Friday (block one) and 08:00 Friday until 08:00 the following Monday (block two) inclusive of public holidays.
Two officers will be on call on each block with the Senior Level 1 officer the primary point of contact via the designated NARU on call contact number.