NSW Ambulance is making a change in the way patient information is gathered when receiving requests from Doctors and Nurses booking an Ambulance for patients requiring ongoing care in an Emergency Department. The information gathered for patients being booked from a community based settings such as a surgery, aged care facility or private addresses that have been evaluated by a Doctor or Nurse will now be obtained utilising the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS).
Obtaining this set of information will ensure patients with the presence of priority symptoms, or who have experienced a sudden or unexpected change in their condition, are allocated an appropriate response priority. The information required is detailed on the attached fact sheet.
With MPDS obtaining a destination is no longer routine. This allows Paramedics to choose an available destination for specialist treatment (e.g. mental health, STEMI patients). If you have confirmed arrangements regarding a specific destination request this can be added to the booking, and discussed with Paramedics on their arrival at the scene.
Once this information is obtained the incident will be prioritised into the current workload and an ambulance dispatched in accordance with response allocation of the incident.
The new process is scheduled to commence 6 September 2017 and will apply to all bookings by GP’s state wide.
The NSW Ambulance Booking number 131233 remains. Selecting option 3 is best for this cohort of patients. Triple Zero (000) should be used for life threatening patients requiring an urgent paramedic response with lights and siren.