Features

Australian paramedic graduates transitioning into UK NHS ambulance services: what are the potential challenges?

University paramedic programmes in Australia and the UK commenced as early as 1994 in Australia (Fields, 1994; Lord, 2003) and 1998 in the UK (Carney, 1999). The transition of paramedic education and...

Ambulance response time in Ireland: the legal implications

A key performance indicator for ECHO (patients who are in cardiac or respiratory arrest) and DELTA (patients with life-threatening conditions other than cardiac or respiratory arrest) calls to the...

Single–dose activated charcoal—a feasibility study in an ambulance setting

A Trust-wide retrospective audit of patient clinical records, where the presenting condition code used by the clinician in attendance was deliberate or accidental overdose (excluding alcohol in...

A clinical review of the indications for, and subsequent implementation of, a pilot pre-hospital sepsis pathway within NWAS

‘an overwhelming uncontrolled, systemic inflammatory response which is mediated by the immune system, the vascular endothelium and inflammatory pathways in response to an infective trigger’ .

Spotlight on Research

In this paper, the authors argue that spinal immobilisation during extrication of patients in road traffic collisions (RTC) is still routinely practised, despite the lack of evidence.

Essex and Herts Air Ambulance: a focused case series for pre-hospital practice

The EHAAT doctor-paramedic team were dispatched to a 10-year-old girl who had been struck by a medium-sized van travelling at an unknown speed. Upon arrival of the first ambulance crew, the patient...

Moving sepsis care to the front line: knowledge and views of pre-hospital clinicians

‘Similar to an acute myocardial ischaemic attack and an acute brain attack, the speed and appropriateness of therapy administered in the initial hours after the syndrome develops are likely to...

Can paramedics treat sepsis?

The Pre-hospital Piperacillin/Tazobactam (PrePip) project tested the concept that UK paramedics could accurately recognise sepsis, aseptically take blood cultures, and safely and rapidly treat septic...

A pilot study exploring the accuracy of pre-hospital sepsis recognition in the North East Ambulance Service

It is estimated there are at least 100 000 cases of severe sepsis each year in the UK, although the true prevalence of sepsis may be higher due to under recognition (Cronshaw et al, 2011). Mortality...