Opinion

Pre-hospital management of smoke inhalation: are we missing something?

‘This number of incidents and the ‘This number of Incidents and the associated mortality serves as an important reminder of how significant the problem of smoke inhalation really is’’.

How much longer?

‘as prof essi onals we need the equipment to be available, and if we don’t have the kit we surely have a professional duty to raise our concerns with our employers’.

Lights, camera, disciplinary action?

Only recently I watched, with interest, a programme that showed a paramedic crew attending a ‘critical’ patient (cue dramatic music) to see the paramedic driving the vehicle away using blue lights and...

The myth and mending of ketamine

Ketamine, a chemical derivative of phencyclidine (PCP), was first synthesized by Calvin Lee Stevens, Professor of organic chemistry at Wayne State University. Initially evaluated under the clinical...

Paramedics in need of user friendly body armour

There is no doubt that too many paramedics and other front-line professionals are still opposed to wearing stab vests or other forms of body protection, only due to simple misperceptions, often based...

British Thoracic Society guidelines on emergency oxygen therapy for adults

In general: Oxygen is a treatment for hypoxaemia and not breathlessnessOxygen is a medicine which should only be administered to achieve a target oxygen saturationOxygen therapy should always be...

Meningococcal septicaemia: identification and management by paramedics

The Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) provides resources for health professionals to help diagnose and treat meningitis and septicaemia. Recently, MRF re-launched its life-saving series of...