CReD 

Ambulance Service Perspectives of POC in Enhancing Care Transitions: (The ASPECT research)

Every year in England, there are around 8 million calls to the ambulance service. Only around 1 in 10 of these will be a serious emergency. The rest might have a health need that requires a different level of care - such as from a GP, pharmacist, or nurse. Some may even be patients that paramedics can treat and leave at home. It is hard for ambulance staff to work out what the exact care need of the complex patient is. There are lots of reasons for this, such as limited access to that patient's health data and a lack of available technology. In this study, we want to know what ambulance people think about the use of technology in these patients. The new knowledge from this study will help us understand why ambulance services are not using them to identify the care needs. We will ask lots of different types of ambulance people. These might be paramedics who respond in an ambulance. They could also be people who make the decisions on what technology goes on an ambulance. The way we will be asking all these people is through an interview. This lets us ask lots of questions to everyone, making sure we get all their views and beliefs. We can then look at all the answers and find what they all agree and disagree on about the topic. The way we have designed the study allows us to take the sample and generalise it to all UK ambulance services. This means the results will lead to a new way of thinking about how to bring this technology to the clinicians who need it, and to the patients who could benefit from it. Once we can work out the answers to these questions, we can start to create new care plans and help these patients in a meaningful way.

To understand the views and experiences of clinicians and stakeholders supporting delivery of care in UK ambulance services regarding how POCT could support care for primary care sensitive conditions.

Qualitative Interview Study

2024-09-01

2025-12-31

NIHR School of Primary Care Research

United Kingdom

jamie.miles@phc.ox.ac.uk

Jamie Miles;