Spotlight on Research

Despite their wide use throughout the UK, air ambulances remain a scarce resource but, as yet, there is no consensus on the best method to identify when they should be dispatched, especially in relation to patients with major trauma.

This London-based, retrospective review of existing data (January 2008–December 2010) set out to demonstrate which of three dispatch methods was the most effective and accurate when identifying patients with serious injury. The three methods used by London's Air Ambulance include dispatch by a flight paramedic based on mechanism of injury (MOI), paramedic telephone interrogation of the caller (INT), and land ambulance crew request (REQ) once they have arrived on-scene.

There are differences in the UK in relation to MOI criteria and what triggers dispatch of air ambulances but, for London's Air Ambulance there are six current criteria: fall over 6 metres, ejection from a vehicle, death of another person in the same vehicle, amputation (above ankle or wrist), entrapment under a vehicle (not motorcycle), person under a train.