Medically trained British Transport Police officers will be deployed across the Tube network later this month to help ‘speed up the response when passengers are taken ill’ on the Underground, Transport for London has said.
BTP and TfL have ‘worked in partnership to enable 20 BTP officers to receive this advanced medical care training’.
The officers will be patrolling ‘key locations around the network as normal and will also have access to two fast response vehicles’.
They will be able to ‘attend incidents quickly and efficiently assess a situation and administer first aid before the London Ambulance Service or paramedics arrive’.
The quick response of medically trained police officers will also ‘help cut delays to Tube services when a person is taken ill on a train’, TfL said.
The specially trained officers will ‘act with a view to not only assisting the person at the scene but also any persons trapped on trains in tunnels or at other locations, by taking additional passenger safety and security information into account such as stalled trains’.
Passenger incidents make up a third of all delays on the Tube and people becoming ill on the train make up a large proportion of these, TfL said.
The officers have undertaken an intensive four week course in ‘Pre Hospital Care’, which was paid for by TfL.
They will be working at various locations as part of a year-long trial which begins ahead of the summer when millions of additional visitors will be using public transport during the London 2012 Olympic Games.
