DORSET Ambulance is the first in the country to launch a new out-of-hours service for patients taken ill at home.

The trust will provide urgent medical care for people who need treatment when their GP's surgery is closed, replacing the old system.

Based in the new control centre at St Leonards, near Ringwood, the Dorset Emergency Care Service will respond to urgent calls across the county.

Nurses, GPs and paramedics with extra skills - emergency care practitioners (ECPs) - will be sent to local treatment centres or to the patient's own home.

Doctors and paramedics will use a fleet of nine new silver response cars - all kitted with out with state-of-the-art medical equipment and communication technology - to treat patients in their own homes.

A trained advisor will answer the initial call from the patient, and a doctor will then call back to agree the best course of action - whether it's telephone advice, a visit to a treatment centre or a home visit.

The ECPs can carry out procedures usually only performed by doctors in hospitals or treatment centres such as catheterisation or stitching wounds.

Ambulance press officer Steve Smith said the new service would be better targeted than the old arrangements.

If a wound needed stitching, an ECP could carry it out.

"It saves waiting for an ambulance, then sitting in hospital waiting for hours to be seen and then waiting for an ambulance to be taken home again," he said.

"It's better for the patient and it's better for the people who really need those ambulances."

Andrew Morris for the Poole Primary Care Trust said it was important that the new service was not swamped.

People in danger of dying should call an ambulance immediately and if they just needed advice they should call NHS Direct on 08454647.

"If you then do need to speak to a doctor they will automatically transfer you to the emergency care service," he said.

If you need urgent help when your GP's surgery is closed you should call 0845 6001013.

First published: October 4