Guidelines & PGDs

In the beginning of the Emergency Care Practitioner role it was felt that we should have guidelines for clinical practice as well as clinical care pathways. In a very short space of time it has been realised that our role is so very dynamic that as soon as a guideline is written at local level it may be changed at national level by the specialists in their field. Such as the British Thoracic Society, Oxford Handbook in Accident and Emergency Medicine or BEST BETS.

As such the guidelines seen below are no longer used. However it does make for interesting historical reading. These days we have a flexible approach to maintaining competency of clinical care within the ECP role. We seek out a wide variety of health care professionals on a regular basis to ensure we are current. It is our responsibility to ensure competence and when asked to by our employer we furnish proof of competence from our portfolios.

WAST ECP Guidelines

The ECP Clinical Care Pathway Guidelines were written by Mike Bjarkoy as a project supported by WAST (now SWAST). I was been given permission by the ECP Project Lead (in 2006) to publish the Care Pathway Guidelines written by myself in 2004 on this site with the below note.

The publication remains the intellectual property of the South Western Ambulance Service (SWAST) and permission must be sought from SWAST prior to reproduction of elements of the guidelines.

It was written in filofax format but can be printed (for your personal interest only) in A4 by selecting this option in printer setup.

Mike Bjarkoy

Click on icon below to activate PDF file

Emergency Planning PGD

The Department of Health has specific PGDs to be used by paramedics in the case of major incidents. These can be accessed in a number of ways, the most common is either on the Dept of Health website (see link belwo) or the Ambulance Service Trust web site for which the paramedic works for.

Although all HART and CBRN teams would already have signed the service form for administration of the PGD many may not have. it is important that all paramedics seek advise through their clinical supervisor to ensure they have signed the PGD although in some instances the ambulance services will state that it is not essential as in the case of a major incident there is a blanket cover. Either way, just confirm which.

I have attached one of the PGDs just for information rather than copying an already good resource.

Department of Health Emergency Planning PGD