A HEALTH watchdog has raised patient safety concerns over the lack of clinical advice being sought by staff handling 999 calls for East Lancashire.

The Care Quality Commission, the official regulator, said ambulance call handlers in Manchester had easy access to clinicians on an urgent-care desk, but staff in Lancashire did not seek clinical input from this service.

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The findings were published in a major inspection report of North West Ambulance Service, which has denied there is an issue.

But the CQC restated its concerns this week.

By seeking advice from the urgent-care desk’s paramedics, call handlers can avoid the fail-safe option of sending an ambulance out to patients with minor complaints, by arranging alternative care such as with a GP.

This can have huge benefits for ambulance crews and hospital emergency departments, which have been struggling to cope in recent weeks after a surge in patients — but figures suggest this is not happening frequently enough.

According to its board papers, NWAS closed just 30 per cent of 999 calls without taking the patient to hospital. This was the worst percentage in the country.

The CQC said call handlers for Lancashire, who are based in Broughton, did not access clinical advice when triaging calls, and call staff would not be clinically trained or supported to advise on whether patients could take certain medicines.

When questioned by the Lancashire Telegraph, NWAS claimed this was inaccurate. A spokesman added: “The urgent-care desks in Manchester and Liverpool are virtual so they handle calls from all over the North West.

“Patients in Lancashire do have access to this and we do transfer Lancashire calls to the urgent-care desk in the same way that calls from other parts of the region are transferred.”

But the CQC inspection team said: “Staff at Broughton were not routinely engaging with clinicians and seeking advice as necessary in the same way as they were elsewhere, so the centres operated differently.”