SPECIALIST TRAUMA RESPONSE TEAMS

That this House applauds the invaluable work undertaken by specialist trauma response teams that provide life-saving and expert treatment to patients at the incident location; notes that providing accident and emergency support direct to the patient before they reach hospital can make the difference between life and death; further notes that outside London this is conducted on a voluntary basis with no public funding; believes that it is an unacceptable risk for the health service to be relying on off-duty volunteers to provide such an essential service that saves lives; supports the recommendations made by the `Trauma: Who cares?' report of the National Confidential Inquiry into Patient Outcome and Death 2007; and calls on the Government to urgently review policy in this area with a view to providing funding for these services.