Flying Squad Research Articles

Preventable presentations of older adults to emergency departments: General practitioners' perspectives.

To describe general practitioners' (GP) perspectives of older patients presenting to the ED, reasons they would refer to the ED and how they utilise community services to help manage older adults. A descriptive study conducted in the Sutherland Shire, Sydney. Case files were compiled using electronic medical records for 50 patients over 70 years old who presented to the ED of The Sutherland Hospital, a teaching hospital in Sydney. Surveys were provided to 10 GPs who each analysed five patients' presentations. Primary outcome was whether the GP would refer the patient to the ED. Secondary outcomes included reasons GPs referred to the ED, and their referral patterns of local community services. Of the 50 patients who presented to the ED, GPs would have referred 21 (42%) to the ED and managed 29 (58%) in the community. The most common reasons GPs would have referred to the ED was that they were 'too unwell', or needed 'urgent imaging or blood tests'. In 26 (52%) of the patients, GPs were aware of a local service that could help manage the patient and would have made that referral in 21 (42%) patients. Rapid Access Diagnosis and Intervention Unit and Geriatric Flying Squad are two of the local aged care services GPs would have referred to most commonly. GPs reported they would have been able to manage a significant proportion of older adults who presented to the ED in the community without referring to the ED. Severe and acute illness requiring urgent evaluation and intervention was the main reason GPs would refer to the ED.

Criminalpol Sicilia and the mafia, 1966–1981

ABSTRACT This article reconstructs events relating to the Centro di coordinamento regionale di polizia criminale (Criminalpol Sicilia) in Palermo, from its establishment in the second half of the 1960s up to the beginning of the 1980s. Created in order to unify and coordinate mafia investigations at the regional level, Criminalpol Sicilia became, over time, one of the most significant ventures in the history of the battle against the mafia. First and foremost, this was because during the 1970s it managed to operate in total synergy with the most important investigative bodies engaged in fighting the mafia, including Palermo’s Squadra Mobile (Flying Squad). Secondly, it was because it proved capable of establishing productive collaborative relationships with similar bodies in other countries, successfully intercepting the elusive flows of the drugs trade. This was possible not least because of Criminalpol Sicilia’s relocation, at an early stage of its activity, within a larger body, Italy’s National Criminalpol, becoming one of its outlying extensions. For the first time in the history of the Italian Republic, the principles of centralization and specialization were applied; subsequently, these proved to be of decisive importance in the struggle against organized crime.

KEANEKARAGAMAN, PALATABILITAS DAN DAYA DUKUNG PAKAN GAJAH SUMATERA (Elephas Maximus Sumatranus) FLYING SQUAD DI TAMAN NASIONAL TESSO NILO

Flying Squad (FS) WWF is a human-elephant conflict mitigation program that has been operated for 13 years. This program operates in Tesso Nilo National Park (TNNP) at high conflict density. The management of FS captive elephant is performed by grazing in TNNP forest area. The existence of grazing activities, the operational time and the threat of deforestation will certainly affect the availability of feed and feed carrying capacity. This study aims to analyze feed diversity, palatability, and feed carrying capacity at the operational area. The method used for this study are 60 plot s of vegetation analysis, interview, literature study and destructive measurement method by making 30 productivity plots of ground cover plants and observed for 2 months. The study found 110 feed species from 47 families. Within 6 hours of palatability observation , average elephant can grab the feed for 1959 time and the highest feed palatability is Rhynchospora corymbosa (L.) Britton. The total of feed productivity from ground cover plants is 82.027 kg/day. Carrying capacity at 1714 ha area is 161 elephants .

Southcare Geriatric Flying Squad: an innovative Australian model providing acute care in residential aged care facilities.

This study reviews the outcomes of a model developed to improve the quality of care of residents living within residential aged care facilities (RACF). The Southcare Geriatric Flying Squad saw a total of 640 acutely unwell RACF residents over an 18-month period. Of these, 578 (90.3%) were managed in the RACF avoiding emergency department. Only 35 (5.5%) patients required emergency department transfer and 27 (4.2%) were directly admitted to a medical ward. The service may have reduced emergency presentations by offering rapid assessment and management, choice in place of treatment and level of interventions.

36 Frailty flying squad: an emergency department focussed acute care of the elderly service DR genevieve robson, royal united hospital NHS foundation trust

IntroductionThe over 75 s make up 20% of our ED attendances. The greatest increase has been in the over 85 s. This very elderly cohort are more likely to be...

‘Ndrangheta and The Street: Experiential Group with Reggio Calabria Flying Squad Policemen

The Calabrian Mafia seems to be animated by a hunger for power with no precedent in other crime organizations, and an ability to hide its presence so much to make it an obvious and inevitable component of the decreed social system, deeply crept into the community cohabitation norms. In the study, we have aimed at investigating the Reggio Calabria flying squad policemen's representations and lived experiences. The qualitative analysis of the text, carried out through dedicated software, has pointed out two super codes (aggression to social connections within solitude; no freedom encloses paranoia). In other words, “solitude” as lived experience is spatially contained in “aggression to connections” and “the absence of freedom” encloses the lived experience of constant and systematic danger (“paranoia”). This means that the emotional elaboration on Mafia, carried out during the group process, has highlighted thinking categories connected to the coercion of relational space which articulate themselves along the emotional dimensions of solitude and paranoid anguish. In our last working session, the participants revealed all their internal contradictions and the confusion ‘Ndrangheta causes in them, since on one hand they have to fight against it, and on the other they try to prevent it from affecting them, thus risking to escape not only the Mafia, but the relation they have with the world.

The scrapbooking detective: Frederick Porter Wensley and the limits of ‘celebrity’ and ‘authority’ in inter-war Britain

Frederick Porter Wensley was one of Scotland Yard's ‘Big Four’ detectives, head of the Metropolitan Police Criminal Investigation Department and responsible for establishing the Flying Squad. On his retirement in 1929, he used the two bound scrapbooks of press clippings and photographs he had collated to document his personal life and career to inform his 1931 autobiography Detective Days and serialized press articles. Through examining the interaction of material between scrapbooks and autobiographical writings, this article explores how Wensley constructed his post-retirement persona as ‘celebrity detective’ from a canny understanding of what had made him a commercial subject for the press. It argues that Wensley recast his life to promote his own successes at the expense of a narrative of police unity, providing a vehicle for him to suggest further changes to the structure of the police force without official sanction. By juxtaposing this against tightening legislation on police communication with journalists during the inter-war period under the Official Secrets Acts, this article demonstrates how the ‘celebrity’ that Wensley sought to occupy was increasingly regarded as irreconcilable with police ability to effect ‘impartial’ regulation, anticipating the concerns raised by the 2012 Leveson Inquiry into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the Press. The article thus charts a turning point in defining the relationship between police and press.

Wildlife offences by communities in eastern Rajasthan

321 Shikar was banned by the Government of Rajasthan by enforcing the Wildlife (Protection) Act in 1972. This has not changed the habits of certain people living in and around the protected areas since illegal poaching and other similar acts sometimes take place. To control wildlife offences, the wildlife wing of the Forest Department, Rajasthan, has nine Wildlife Flying Squads which are stationed at different places all over the state. One of the flying squads has been stationed at Jaipur for the east-central part of the State. The Flying Squad (eastern zone) is working since 1974-1975. Initially its jurisdiction was wider (the entire state) but since 1984-1985 onward its patrolling is confined to districts of Jaipur, Dausa, Sikar and Jhunjhunu only. During the last 24 years (1974-1975 to 1997-1998), the Jaipur Flying Squad has recorded wildlife offences with as many as 383 cases registered.

An emergency pocket drug case of the 1940s.

A description is given of an emergency box dating from about 1940. Its compact and portable nature, and certain of its contents, while throwing light on the working conditions of the times, raised a question as to its purpose and provenance. The main contents-the box and its contents are described, and the possible use of its constituents is considered. The drugs fall into five main groups: anaesthetic premedicants, medullary stimulants, vasoconstrictors, cardiac stimulants and drugs acting on the uterus. It is suggested that their primary purpose was for emergency obstetric use. It is concluded that the most probable purpose was for use by the obstetric 'Flying squad.' A brief account of the constitution of such a squad, and its method of working, is given.

Skin necrosis caused by a semi-rigid cervical collar in a ventilated patient with multiple injuries

A I9-year-old girl was involved in a road traffic accident and was trapped in her car sustaining multiple injuries. A two piece semi-rigid collar was applied at the scene. She was managed according to Advanced Trauma Life Support protocols by an Accident Flying Squad. Her injuries consisted of a tear in the small bowel mesentery requiring emergency surgery for haemorrhage, cerebral oedema, fractures of the left acetabulum and left twelfth rib, and pulmonary contusions. The initial cervical spine radiograph failed to include C7 Tl and therefore the collar was left on. She had a persistent tachycardia of around lOO/min and one brief hypotensive episode (80 mmHg systolic) prior to theatre, which responded rapidly to fluid resuscitation. Total volume resuscitation consisted of 2 litres of colloid and 4 units of blood. After theatre and computerized tomographic scan she was ventilated on the intensive care unit. The following day further radiographs of the cervical spine were performed and reported as normal. The collar was removed 36 h after its application, at which time areas of skin necrosis were noted over the angles of the jaw (Figure 7) and indentations in the skin of the occiput and chest.

Pre-hospital trauma management

This article outlines the major differences and difficulties which may be encountered when dealing with the traumatised victim in the pre-hospital setting. Many hospital-based personnel have little or no experience in working in a pre-hospital setting, other than when they are called upon to attend the scene of an incident as part of the Accident and Emergency Flying Squad. This article has been written to give a brief insight into problems which may be encountered. I have also endeavoured to encourage hospital authorities and individual units to provide regular training for personnel so as to optimise care for the casualties and also protect the team members themselves, in this often hostile environment. This paper was developed as a result of personal experiences, and comments expressed by both nursing and other professionals whilst teaching the subject at the ALS Training School.

A paramedic based emergency domiciliary obstetric service: the South Glamorgan experience.

To assess the potential benefits of using extended trained ambulance personnel (paramedics) as primary responders for domiciliary obstetric and gynecological emergencies. An observational study of performance and analysis of operational data in a newly established service. A mixed urban and rural population served by South Glamorgan Health Authority. Work load, response times, management and transfer of patients, efficiency of communications and appropriateness of training. There was an initial increase in requests above that when a hospital-based service operated. Targets for response times were met. The mean response time for providing appropriate skilled help was halved compared with the previous arrangements and a safe and efficient service was provided. Prompt transport and advance notice and preparation for reception in the delivery unit contributed to optimal management. Medical staff depletion in the delivery unit was minimised. An Emergency Domiciliary Obstetric Service based on primary response by specially trained ambulance service paramedics can beneficially replace traditional hospital-based Obstetric Flying Squads.

The North Staffordshire obstetric flying squad, 1986–1990

SummaryThe objective was to audit the activity of the North Staffordshire Maternity Hospital Obstetric Flying Squad using a retrospective case note and register review, covering 1986-1990.There were 132 calls, a rate of 4:1000 deliveries; all were domiciliary and the majority were within 5 miles of the hospital. Only 22 calls were professionally initiated. Bleeding was the commonest problem, though this was estimated to be less than 100 ml in 80 per cent. In 92 per cent of instances no action was necessary other than setting up an intravenous infusion and transporting the patient back to hospital.The current use of the obstetric flying squad to respond to domiciliary obstetric emergencies is redundant and usually inappropriate.

Accident Flying Squads and Emergencies

Accident Flying Squads and Emergencies

Accident Flying Squads

Accident Flying Squads

Are Accident Flying Squads also Worthwhile for Medical Emergencies?

A retrospective analysis of 208 flying squad attendances was performed to assess the effect of pre-hospital care by the team on outcome in emergency medical conditions, and in the trauma victim. Sixty-two (26%) of these cases were medical, but only 24 (11.5%) required immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Only one out of the four successful resuscitations finally left hospital alive. In trauma, there was no significant enhancement of survival due to the presence of the team by comparing the expected against observed mortality and the injury severity score for age-matched groups. The value of flying squads as a training aid, perception of the local community and relationships with other emergency services are discussed. Alternative solutions to improving pre-hospital care include advanced trained ambulance and bystander resuscitation schemes. Although difficult to quantify the authors feel that flying squads are of benefit.

Role of an accident flying squad in medical emergencies

A retrospective study of medical cases attended by the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary Accident Flying Squad demonstrates that of 17 cases only two patients survived to leave hospital. Nine cases of cardiac arrest have been studied in further detail. In all of these cases it was found that diagnosis of arrest had been made before the Flying Squad was called and that the situation had become extreme before the arrival of the medical team. In every case the Flying Squad team took more than 3 min to arrive, irrespective of distance. Review of the literature appears to support the conclusion that medical teams have been of little value when called to cardiac arrest at any distance from the hospital because of the time lag. It is suggested that more sophisticated primary care should be available immediately, preferably by highly trained ambulance personnel. Medical teams would give appropriate support to such primary care.

The Obstetric Flying Squad: A Method of Reducing Maternal Mortality and and Morbidity in Developing Countries

The Obstetric Flying Squad: A Method of Reducing Maternal Mortality and and Morbidity in Developing Countries

Anaesthesia and the accident flying squad: a new anaesthetic machine.

A new light-weight purpose-designed portable anaesthetic machine has been used for treating patients at the accident site. It was found to be safe and invaluable in the emergency treatment of the severely injured.

Profile of an accident flying squad.

An analysis of 184 accident flying squad calls and of 280 patients injured in road accidents and treated by a flying squad based on an accident department inclusive from 1967 to 1971 has shown that such a service can provide an efficient system without disrupting the routine work of the hospital.