East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS) has declared its first ever critical incident, following widespread flooding in the area.
As a result of the floods, the organisation has put out more ambulance than ever before. They declared a ‘critical incident yesterday (Monday, January 6).
Picture credit: EMAS
The Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response framework describes a critical incident as: ‘any localised incident where the level of disruption results in the organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services, patients may have been harmed or the environment is not safe requiring special measures and support from other agencies, to restore normal functions.
“The combination of significant patient demand, pressure within local hospitals, and flooding across the East Midlands, have led to this level of escalation,” said an EMAS spokesman.
“Declaring a critical incident includes a formal ask of partner services to take immediate action to help mitigate the risk for people in our communities.”
The trust said the declaration was a “formal ask” of partner services to help “mitigate the risk for people in our communities”.
This includes asking hospitals for the rapid release of ambulances from hospital departments to enable the service to respond to life-threatening emergencies.
From Tuesday morning (January 7), local NHS clinical hubs will be taking category 3 calls, such as abdominal pains, from EMAS and provide support for these patients.
Similar calls from NHS 111 will also receive clinical validation from the service provider before an ambulance is sent for.
In addition, members of the public are urged to use “NHS services wisely” and to seek alternative care via a pharmacy, urgent treatment centre, or GP if their illness or injury is not life-threatening.
