| Author/s | Laing W, Spears R, Thompson J, Jackson G, Eddleston M |
| Year | 2013 |
| Type of publication | Conference proceeding |
| Link | https://doi.org/10.3109/15563650.2013.785188 |
| Abstract | Objective: To review contacts to UK poisons centres originating from ambulance service personnel. Methods: Retrospective analysis of poisons centre data for enquiries to the four UK poisons centres from 1st April 2007 to 31st March 2012 inclusive. Enquiries where the enquirer type was recorded as “Emergency Services” or “Ambulance” compared with overall call load. Analysis included basic demographic patient details, agent(s) involved and severity of poisoning as assessed by poisoning severity score (PSS), a measure of the patient's symptoms as assessed at the time of the enquiry to the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS). Results: 250,170 enquiries were made to the UK NPIS over this period, of which 22,741 (9.1%) overall were classified as originating from “Emergency Services” or “Ambulance”. Yearly percentages were: 2006/7: 6.7%; 2008/9: 8.9%; 2009/10: 10.1%; 2010/11: 9.6%; 2011/12: 10.0%. Comparison of PSS breakdown for ambulance calls versus overall call load (broken down by year) shows a similar pattern between the two groups: (ambulance calls/all calls PSS0 (60.0% 34.5–65.7%)/61.2% (38.4–67.3%); PSS1 26.0% (15.5%– 29.6%)/23.3% (15.4%–25.7%); PSS2 1.8% (0.8%–2.5%)/3.3% (2.1%–4.1%); PSS3 0.2% (0.1%–0.3%)/1.5% (1.0%–3.3%)). Discussion: Calls to the UK NPIS from ambulance services consist of calls from crews responding to a poisoning episode and calls from support personnel who feed clinical information through to ambulance crews. The proportion of the NPIS call load which relates to ambulance service enquiries, when expressed as a percentage, is reasonably static year-on-year, despite fluctuations in overall enquiry numbers. Broad comparison of ambulance service enquiries with our overall enquiry load, focusing on PSS as a comparator, do not reveal marked differences between the two groups. Conclusion: Enquiries from ambulance service personnel continue to represent a significant proportion of the overall NPIS workload, indicating it may be mutually beneficial to identify agents commonly seen in enquiries from ambulance crews and provide entries tailored to ambulance crew needs. Ambulance services and other front-line responders are expected to benefit from using the new TOXBASE application which can be used offline with portable devices such as mobile telephones, allowing ambulance crews to access a poisons database directly while ‘on-scene’ with patients. |