TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose With the increasing demand on ambulance services, paramedics are tasked to arrange as much out of hospital care as possible, to develop integrated systems of care and work with hundreds of different providers – all in the 15 minutes allocated for assessment. A UK ambulance trust is navigating and leading much of this work as one of the first trusts to implement a general practitioner referral policy as an alternate to direct conveyance. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approach Here the authors discuss the referral scheme, examine the limited evidence available and discuss what is needed to influence prospective success of implementing this scheme in other trusts.Findings Limited evidence for these schemes are described, however there is a clear gap in critical appraisal and methodologically rigorous evidence needed to implement these schemes in other ambulance schemes.Originality/value In order to facilitate collaboration of healthcare services and to minimize the burden of increasing numbers of patients, communication and discussion of alternate routes of care is crucial. This viewpoint piece is one of the first to emphasize the potential benefits of such schemes.
VL  - 6
IS  - 2
SN  - 2047-0894
DO  - 10.1108/IJES-01-2017-0002
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/IJES-01-2017-0002
AU  - Blodgett Joanna M.
AU  - Robertson Duncan
AU  - Ratcliffe David
AU  - Rockwood Kenneth
PY  - 2017
Y1  - 2017/01/01
TI  - An alternative model of pre-hospital care for 999 patients who require non-emergency medical assistance
T2  - International Journal of Emergency Services
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 99
EP  - 103
Y2  - 2024/04/23
ER  -