What price 90 seconds: is ‘Call Connect’ a disservice to 999 callers?

[...]a new staff grade of emergency care assistant (ECA) with 6 weeks training (3 weeks of which are about driving) is replacing ambulance technicians who had 12 months of education-arguably evidence that a previous emphasis on clinical competency is being subsumed in order to produce personnel to drive emergency vehicles to reach 999 calls in the shortest possible time. [...]the 1960s the possession by a recruit of a driving licence was more highly prized by ambulance employers than that of a first aid certificate, and the introduction of ECAs risks a return to this outmoded value.