FOI 25-127 Patient Conveyances
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-127 Patient Conveyances
- Request Date
- 14 Mar 2025
- Response Date
- 07 Apr 2025
- Information Requested
I would be very grateful if you could answer, please, the following questions:
1 For each of the years 2019 to 2024 inclusive, please set out:
a) How many patients were conveyed by your ambulance service to hospital.- b) How many patients were transferred, within 24h, to another hospital.
- c) How many Concerns, how many Complaints (upheld), how many Complaints (not upheld), how many incidents, how many "patient safety incidents", and how many "Serious Incidents" there were, relating to conveyance by your ambulance service to an inappropriate hospital
2 Please disclose all policies/procedures/working practises concerning how your ambulance crew , having decided a patient should be conveyed to hospital, decide which hospital should be the destination.
- Response
1a) Please see the information below detailing the number of patients that have been conveyed to hospital for each of the years requested.
2019 - 386,684
2020 - 335,974
2021 - 364,815
2022 - 356,615
2023 - 362,223
2024 - 372,665
1b) The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold information in a way that allows us to determine how many patients were transferred to another hospital within 24hours of admittance. Once a vehicle is cleared from an incident, this would be closed. If a patient is then transferred to another hospital via the Scottish Ambulance Service, this would be logged as a new job. It is for this reason; we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
1c) There is not a category in our feedback system that allows us to search on the theme of ‘inappropriate hospital’. It is for this reason; we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
2) The Scottish Ambulance Service utilises a dispatch system that will suggest the closest hospital in relation to the incident. However, it is the attending crew’s own decision making and knowledge which dictates where a patient is taken. There can be specific warnings/flags on patient details in a system; whereby a person is known to have a specific illness/treatment plan and needs to go to a specific hospital.
