Emergency care

Emergency care is the term used within the NHS to describe seriously ill or injured patients, who require emergency help.

This covers patients suffering from an immediately life-threatenging condition e.g: Ambulance with blue lights

serious trauma, after a Road Traffic Collision for example
cardiac arrest
severe breathing difficulties
serious, uncontrolled bleeding
unconscious

Patients who dial 999 with an immediately life-threatening condition, would be categoried as requiring the most urgent level of ambulance response. Pre-arrival advice would often also be provided over the phone by the Emergency Call Operator in the Emergency Dispatch Centre, prior to the arrival of the ambulance clinician.

Analysis of our 999 calls shows that annually only about 10-20% of the 999 calls we receive fall into this category on average.

SECAmb has worked hard to improve the level of care provided to these patients through the development of the Critical Care Paramedic (CCP) role.

Although sometime based in ambulances, CCPs also work extremely closely with the Air Ambulances across the region. Seriously ill patients or those suffering from severe trauma may be taken directly to a specialist unit, depending on their condition or may require subsequent transfer from a local hospital to a more specialist centre.