Emergency Medical Retrieval Service -

Since the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS) pilot launch in June, Scotland’s new flying doctor service has retrieved 60 seriously ill and injured patients from up and down the west coast and given advice on the assessment, treatment and safe transfer of a further 41 patients. Two thirds of the patients retrieved are suffering from medical emergencies and one third from life threatening injuries. In the past three months the team has retrieved five patients from Islay & Jura. The co-location with the Scottish Ambulance Service at the Bond Helipad in Glasgow has improved response times greatly. The average time to have the team in the air and on their way to assist patients is down to only 49 minutes. This includes all missions carried out at night as well as day time retrievals. Despite covering the whole west coast, the average time from receiving the initial call to delivering a patient safely to definitive care in an urban hospital is down to 4 hours, with 90% of missions completed within 6 hours of receiving the initial call. The service is funded by the Scottish Government Health Department and the team is deployed to the patient in the rural hospital by ambulance service helicopter, fixed wing aircraft or by Royal Navy Sea King helicopter. Continue reading.....
The emergency medical retrieval service brings the urban hospital emergency department to patients in remote and rural areas. The EMRS provides rural practitioners with immediate access to expert advice on patient care and management. The EMRS provides rural patients with rapid access to life saving critical care interventions normally only available in large hospitals and it provides safe transfer directly to definitive hospital care. The retrieval team combines the emergency and critical care skills of consultants with the out of hospital and air transfer experience of Scottish ambulance service paramedics giving patients in rural areas with life threatening injuries and illnesses an improved chance of survival. Recently EMRS were called about a lady on Islay who was unconscious with meningitis. Over the phone the consultant gave the GP on the island advice about how to initially treat the patient. The consultant was flown to Islay by Royal Navy Search and Rescue helicopter. In the island hospital the consultant anaesthetized the patient and inserted catheters into an artery in their wrist and into their heart to optimize their blood pressure. The patient was then flown on a ventilator directly to an intensive care bed in Glasgow. The patient made a full recovery and was discharged from hospital a week later. This would not have been possible before the introduction of the retrieval service.