"Volunteer" Crews Can Now Deal With 60% Of 999 Calls

BBC Tees has learnt that to cover gaps in the system and to prioritise life threatening 999 calls, volunteers are being used by the North East Ambulance Service to attend "low level emergency calls".

NEAS have signed contracts with the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance to provide volunteer crews that will be able to attend sixty per cent of all 999 calls.

The ambulance service says this is not cost cutting, but an efficient method to ensure their crews can continue to deal with the most serious emergencies.

Earlier this week the BBC's David Rhodes spoke with Paul Liversidge from NEAS, and began by asking him how this arrangement works.