The Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS), provides patients with life threatening conditions in remote and rural areas of the West of Scotland, with rapid access to the skills of a consultant in emergency or intensive care medicine.  The consultants are ready to respond to requests for help, by helicopter or plane, within minutes.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde were commissioned by the Scottish Government Health Department to undertake an 18 month pilot of an EMRS, serving all remote and rural health care facilities in the West of Scotland.

The pilot service commenced June 1st 2008 and over the 18 months to the end of November 2009 EMRS has undertaken 356 patient retrievals and given advice on another 283 cases;

 

Type 

 

From

 

Retrieval    

 

Advice

  

 Fort William

29 

14 

 Rural General Hospitals     Oban

30

20

 Stornoway

33 

39

  
  
 Arran

13

11

 Barra

6

8

 Benbecula

8

6

 Broadford

11

6

 Bute

19

19

 Community HospitalsCampbeltown

27

26

 Cumbrae

1

5

 Dunoon

25

25

 Islay

18

13

 Lochgilphead

30

18

 Mull

5

12

 Portree

2

0

 Stranraer

30

15

  
  
 Coll

1

1

 Colonsay

1

0

 Remote GPsJura

1

0

 Muasdale

1

0

 Tighnabruaich   

1

0

 Tiree

9

16

  
  
 Pre-hospital 

53

18

  
  
 Other 

2

11

  
  
 Totals 

356

283

 

EMRS continues to work with rural practitioners via a series of "Working With the Retrieval Team" courses. The feedback from remote and rural areas has been very positive and emphasised the importance of developing an integrated system of rural emergency care for Scotland.

Published 26th January 2010

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