The role and the scope of ambulance services has changed radically over recent decades. The ambulance service is now expected to provide complete pre-hospital care.
The majority of 999 calls are not traffic accidents or heart attacks. More typically, calls involve people with complex and ongoing health problems experiencing a crisis. This could be an elderly person with heart failure and diabetes having had a fall, someone with lung disease experiencing breathlessness or a person at risk of suicide ringing in distress.
DOI: 10.3310/themedreview-000827
Care at the Scene - Research for ambulance services
Care at the Scene brings together recent NIHR research evidence on urgent and emergency care, focused on the ambulance service. It features:
- Insights from paramedics, researchers and commissioners
- 22 published studies
- 17 ongoing projects
- Questions for your organisation
Produced by the University of Southampton on behalf of NIHR through the NIHR Dissemination Centre
