Paramedics at South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) are testing patients for COVID-19 at home – including those without symptoms – if they require transfer to a hospital in a pioneering initiative designed to speed up handovers and release crews more quickly.
Currently, lateral flow tests, which are used to detect the virus in people with no symptoms who could be highly infectious, are only used when patients being transferred by ambulance without confirmed COVID-19 arrive at the hospital in locations such as emergency departments and maternity assessment units.
The test involves placing a swab in the nose and/or mouth, which is then mixed with a solution that looks for virus fragments.
Droplets are then placed onto the device, and a result is delivered within 30 minutes.
The pilot study will see lateral flow tests administered by a trained ambulance crew to patients on the decision to transfer them to hospital, with the trial involving all patients over 18 – both with or without symptoms – who are being taken to Oxford University Hospitals.
The process will ensure a patient has test results on or very soon after arrival to inform secondary care clinicians which COVID-19 care pathway should be followed.
Dr John Black, Medical Director at SCAS, said:
“The pandemic saw hospitals quickly arrange separate pathways for receiving patients, with red/COVID-19 for patients reporting symptoms and with suspected or confirmed infection, and green/non-COVID for patients not reporting symptoms and without suspected or confirmed infection.
“When these tests are carried out on arrival at hospital, social distancing requirements and the wait for results may contribute to ambulance handover delays and a bottleneck in patient flow through the care pathways.
“We expect the use of lateral flow tests pre-hospital to have a direct and positive impact on reducing handover delays, improving bottleneck of patients in the red/COVID care pathway queue and increase patient hospital flow.”
He added: “This is a small study to begin with in Oxford, so it will not happen with every patient transfer across SCAS, however, further roll out to a wider area will be considered if the concept is proved through the pilot and there is sufficient access to lateral flow devices.”
Stay up-to-date with more news from the front line by subscribing to our free newsletter. Subscribe by clicking HERE.
Got a story? Send your videos and pictures to contact@emergency-services.news You can also find us on Twitter @ES_News_
Before you go...
We need your help. As former emergency services & armed forces personnel, we pride ourselves on bringing you important, fast-moving and breaking news stories & video which are free from the negative bias which is often directed at the emergency services & NHS by some sections of the mainstream media.
One of the reasons we started 'Emergency Services News' was because we became tired of reading badly informed stories about the emergency services & NHS which seemed only ever to highlight negative aspects of the job.
We want to be the unheard voice of the remarkable men and women who serve in the emergency services, NHS and armed forces. And with around 500k page views each month, we are getting there!
As income from ads, the mainstay source of income for most publishers, continues to decline; we need the help of you, our readers.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
