Mechanisms to facilitate rapid ambulance transport of diagnosed STEMI patients from the community and emergency departments (ED) settings directly to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) facilities are well established within NHS Ambulance Services. Direct challenge of inter-hospital transfer requests for non-emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients by a regional NHS Ambulance Service identified disagreement between peripheral feeder hospitals and the NHS Ambulance Service on what level of ambulance transport is most appropriate. To reduce unnecessary peripheral feeder hospital requests for paramedic emergency service transfer and resource utilisation in non-emergency PCI patients and to assess the clinical safety of both non-emergency transport and multi-occupancy conveyance for this patient group. A process was established with a regional cardiothoracic centre to support pre-screening of non-emergency PCI patients for conveyance via non-emergency ambulance resources and multi-occupancy. This included centralisation of all non-emergency PCI ambulance transport booking practices and dissemination of learning materials on the process to all stakeholders. During the three-year period 3172 patients were identified as suitable for conveyance by both non-emergency ambulance transports. Of this, 36% (n=1767) were conveyed as part of a multi-occupancy journey and 56% (n=782) were conveyed by non-emergency resources. Overall, 69% (n=782) of all multi-occupancy conveyances were undertaken by non-emergency resources. Two clinical incidents were noted during this period, both of which were managed via clinical telephone advice. Non-emergency ambulances can be safely used to transport non-emergency PCI patients via multi-occupancy, following appropriate pre-screening by the receiving PCI unit. Further work is needed to understand the feasibility of this across other patient groups in the inter-hospital transfer scenario and its transferability to other NHS Ambulance Services.

Heliox (HeO2) is a mixture of helium and oxygen, often mixed in 80:20 or 70:30 ratios for use in medicine and clinical investigations. Heliox has been available for use in the UK since 2002 and is supplied as Heliox 21 (21% oxygen and 79% helium) by BOC Gases for medical use in asthma, croup, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other medical procedures. Heliox use in asthma exacerbations remains largely experimental owing to the limited number of randomized controlled trials. This review aims to critically analyse the efficiency of Heliox use in acute asthma exacerbations in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) setting, evaluate its effectiveness as a medium for nebulization, and assess potential benefits to clinical practice. Prehospital application will also be discussed in moderate-severe asthma exacerbations. It is envisaged that the factors relating to Heliox use in asthma are focused to provide an additional therapy to the current choice of therapies for prehospital clinicians.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the name for a collection of lung diseases including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive airways disease. It is a debilitating airways disease which presents to the ambulance service with varying severity and is characterized by airflow obstruction which is usually progressive, not fully reversible and does not change markedly over several months. It may coexist with other comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, making diagnosis of exacerbations difficult. COPD management in the prehospital environment is focused on effective recognition and the early application of pharmacological intervention to alleviate symptoms using current Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee Guidelines.

Asthma exacerbations are characterized by progressive increase in shortness of breath, decrease in expiratory airflow, productive or non-productive cough, wheezing and feeling of chest tightness. Emergency hospital admissions for asthma are costly and it is estimated 75% are avoidable through effective asthma management and routine care. This article addresses asthma management in prehospital care explaining relevant underlying pathophysiology of asthma exacerbations to provide clinicians with a greater understanding of asthma and its pharmacological and ventilatory management. .

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