A reminder that healthcare professionals should call for an ambulance using 0800 262 665, for patients associated with your facility/medical centre.
For emergencies outside your facility/medical centre it is still appropriate to call 111.
To ensure an appropriate and timely response to patients in primary care, St John has once again bolstered capacity on their dedicated healthcare professional phone number.
Your call will be answered by a paramedic whenever possible. They will work with you to ensure the most appropriate ambulance response, will advise you if there will be significant delays and will offer additional clinical advice if this would be helpful.
Rather than going through a range of questions to determine patient acuity, the paramedic will simply ask ‘is the condition immediately life-threatening’. Overstating your patient’s condition will delay our response to critically ill patients, so it is vital that you answer this question accurately. Some examples are provided in the poster linked below, and St John recognise that clinical judgement is needed.
Read more information in the St John health professional's update.
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