General practitioner attendance at emergencies notified to ambulance control.

Abstract

For two years doctors from a small village went to the scene of emergency calls received by ambulance control. On 80% of the occasions when the doctor was called at the same time as the ambulance was dispatched the doctor arrived before the ambulance. There were 24 incidents, 16 of which were road traffic accidents. In two cases the doctor established a clear airway in an unconscious patient before the ambulance arrived. Two patients were trapped in their vehicles and were given parenteral analgesics. Four patients required intravenous fluids. The call out system provided first aid for patients before the ambulance arrived and medical assistance to the emergency services at serious accidents. Patients who did not require hospital attention could be examined and treated at the scene, making the ambulance available for other duties and reducing the number of patients taken to the hospital accident and emergency department.