The "unsung heroes" of ambulance service staff need help to reduce stress and sickness absences, found a professor at Kingston University

The research, which Kingston’s Professor Tom Quinn was involved in, was commissioned after concerns were raised that ambulance control staff had sickness leave at twice the national average.

Professor Quinn, from the faculty of health, social care and education at Kingston and St George’s University of London, was part of a team which found that although dispatchers find their job rewarding, they often feel overworked and undervalued compared to the people who work on the front line at emergencies.

The team of experts who interviewed dispatch staff, who are in charge of sending paramedics to emergencies from control centres.

Professor Quinn said dispatchers worked in a highly unpredictable job, over which they had no control.

He added: “Dispatchers are faceless compared to frontline staff, but they are a tribe of unsung heroes working in similar conditions to air traffic controllers and the public often don’t understand the importance of their jobs.

“They may not be seen as heroes like paramedics and firefighters, but they are the ones ensuring that appropriate medical care reaches people in emergencies, and frequently provide potentially lifesaving advice while an ambulance is en route.”

The research, which involved academic experts from the University of East Anglia, the University of Surrey and Anglia Ruskin University, has been published in the Emergency Medicine Journal.

It recommends implementing more opportunities for dispatchers, paramedics and emergency service crews to understand each other’s jobs, including shadowing on shifts.

Recent articles on ambulance services:

Recent research findings from Kingston University have seen a team led by postgraduate research student Rishikesh Kankesh Patel, discover that dark chocolate can improve the performance of athletes in a similar way to beetroot juice.

Mr Patel said: “Beetroot juice is rich in nitrates, which are converted to nitric oxide in the body. This dilates blood vessels and reduces oxygen consumption – allowing athletes to go further for longer.”

The team found dark chocolate contains epicatechin, a type of flavanol found in the cacao bean which increases nitric oxide productions in the body.