Our clinical telephone advice team is
made up of experienced emergency medical technicians
and paramedics, who provide medical advice over the phone to
callers with less serious conditions.
Team members are well equipped with the skills
necessary to call back and further assess and advise those patients
where the initial assessment has determined that they are suffering
from illnesses or injuries that are neither serious nor
life-threatening.
During the call they aim to establish the best
course of treatment for the patient. This could involve being cared
for at home, being referred to their GP or local pharmacy, or
having an ambulance sent to them.
The clinical telephone advice team handled 50,058 calls in
2010/11. By advising on more appropriate care options for callers,
they kept ambulances free for those patients who really needed
them.