Hampshire paramedics taking part in "pioneering study" with home testing
It's hoped it will mean ambulances can leave hospitals quicker
Paramedics from South Central Ambulance Service are taking part in a pioneering initiative designed to help speed up hospital handovers.
Currently lateral flow tests, which indicate if a patient is positive with Covid-19 in 30 minutes, are taken by anyone arriving at hospital to the ED or maternity units.
However, this means that the ambulance and it's staff that took them there are unable to leave until a result is given.
So this pilot study will see trained paramedics administer lateral flow tests to patients at home, on the decision to take them to hospital.
This means that the result should come back before or shortly after the ambulance arrives, leading to quicker handover times and staff being released to go help other people in need.
This trial is first being done at Oxford University Hospitals, but could be rolled out across the region if successful.
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.
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."