FIREFIGHTERS should be deployed to assist ambulance crews in medical situations to help save lives, Scotland's fire chief has said.

Steven Torrie, Chief ­Inspector of the Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), said firefighters could play a vital medical response role in communities across the country, particularly in the quick and effective use of defibrillators to deal with cardiac arrests.

He called for a transformational change in the relationship between the SFRS and Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) as a report into the potential for joint working between the two groups was published.

At present, more than half of Scotland's fire appliances are equipped with defibrillators, but these were originally acquired for use in the event that a firefighter has a cardiac arrest while on duty and are rarely used for other purposes.

With only a few exceptions, SFRS personnel do not respond routinely to calls for help to members of the public who have medical emergencies - a practice that has been adopted by a number of fire services in England and Wales as well as overseas.

A small pilot scheme has been established at Maud and Braemar for a number of years, allowing personnel to respond to medical calls in their station area, and has been deemed a success as it did not impact on emergency firefighting cover.

Mr Torrie said: "This report highlights the tremendous potential that exists for the SFRS to support the SAS and improve co-operation and joint-working in a way that will save lives and improve patient outcomes during time-critical medical emergencies.

"Instead of viewing their ­respective response activities as separate from each other and requiring only to be co-ordinated at the boundaries, we believe that fire and ambulance services should increasingly see themselves as jointly contributing to attending emergency incidents to provide the best possible outcomes for the public, regardless of the nature of the incident.

"To achieve this will require a transformational change in the way these services work together, and I hope our report will act as a catalyst for action to benefit communities the length and breadth of Scotland."

The SFRS owns around 380 ­defibrillators, with around 350 deployed on fire engines, while many firefighters are already trained in enhanced first aid.

The plan would not result in ­firefighters replace ambulance staff, but work alongside them where necessary.

Mr Torrie added: "If fire and rescue service personnel, trained in initial emergency interventions, can attend at medical incidents before the ambulance service is able to get there - and save lives by doing so - then in our view the public would not expect traditional views of what a firefighter does to stand in the way of that."

The Scottish Ambulance Service said that it looked forward to discussions with the SFRS, and that there would be benefits in the two emergency services working together.

Its spokesman said: "While we have a world-class average ambulance response time in Scotland of 6.5 minutes for life-threatening emergencies, we know that in cardiac cases every second counts and that equipping communities with basic life saving skills and equipment, such as defibrillators, will further improve survival rates."

A spokesman for the SFRS said: "Our close partnership with the Scottish Ambulance Service will of course continue to protect the public and we will always consider any new opportunities for our respective teams' distinct skills and resources to further benefit Scotland's communities."