Spike in serious incidents

There has been an increase in the number of serious incidents (SIs) in June, with 11 being declared already, compared to three last month.

Non-conveyance, delays and clinical decision-making on scene are the reasons for this month’s current SIs.

We are working hard to recruit hundreds of student paramedics this year and over the next two years, with nearly 100 in training already.  This coupled with the staff we are up-skilling from ECA to EMT and EMT to paramedic, the graduate and qualified paramedics we are recruiting and the steps we have taken, and are taking, to increase ambulance cover will significantly increase front line staffing and reduce ambulance delays.

In terms of clinical decision making there are several options of assistance to you when you are on scene with a patient with complicated or complex conditions; your clinical manual, the JRCALC guidelines and for seriously ill patients, the clinical advice line.

A revamped version of the non-conveyance form is now available. This will aid and support your decision-making and provide evidence of how you came to the conclusion not to take a patient to hospital; this will also be covered in this year’s professional update (PU).

If you are unable to explain a patient’s observations or are unsure of what course of action to take (following your assessment of the patient and taking into account past medical history and the presenting complaint) it is likely that the patient needs further assessment and treatment and will need to be taken to hospital for this. An example would be chest pain with no acute changes but with ST depression, plus cardiac history and no resolution of symptoms; this patient would require transport to hospital.

Clinical patient assessments will also be covered in this year’s PU and you will see feature articles on specific conditions in Need to Know regularly to support and build on your clinical knowledge.

Published 19th June 2014