Ambulance boss tells Manchester Arena Inquiry more paramedics should have helped

More paramedics should have been deployed into the blast scene of the Manchester Arena attack, an ambulance chief has told an inquiry.

Giving evidence, Keith Prior, director of the National Ambulance Resilience Unit said more needed to be done to "develop a pragmatic approach to risk management" to make sure commanders "make decisions based on what is in front of them and not what is in the rule book."

Only three paramedics went into the City Room foyer, where suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his bomb.

Members of the public and unarmed police officers were forced to move casualties on makeshift stretchers.

Two were members of a Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) and trained to work in inner cordon 'hot zones' at major incidents.

However, a public inquiry into the May 2017 atrocity was told an ambulance commander directed other HART medics to set up oxygen tanks and a casualty collection point instead of heading into the City Room to help with patients.

Giving evidence, Keith Prior, director of the National Ambulance Resilience Unit, said: "Their primary focus should have been going forward into the incident.

"That's what they are trained for, that's what their procedures deal with, and that's what I would have expected."

He said others would have been capable of carrying out tasks such as preparing a casualty collection point.

Inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders asked Mr Prior: "If civilians and unarmed police are working in an area, then the ambulance service should be in there as well?"

Mr Prior, replied: "Yes, if unprotected members of the public and police are in the forward position, then ambulance paramedics should be in there."

He said the "overriding factor" in making command decisions "should be the welfare of the patients and the public caught up in an incident".

Mr Prior said fire and rescue service commanders were very experienced in sending personnel into dangerous situations but their ambulance service counterparts were not.

That flips completely at a major incident", said Mr Prior. "Those staff have been trained to go into those areas, so they know the risks, but the commander may not be as experienced in putting people into those risky situations."

Mr Prior also called for more HART staff in England as numbers have "remained largely static" since the capability was introduced more than 15 years ago.

He said: "There are 15 HART teams in England. Each of those HART teams has six staff on duty at any one time. That hasn't changed since the inception of HART.

"What we are finding is that it is a struggle to maintain six on duty at all times for ambulance trusts, notwithstanding Covid, which has affected everybody."

The inquiry into the terror attack that killed 22 people and injured hundreds will continue next week.