FOI 25-137 Triaging and Dispatching Calls
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-137 Triaging and Dispatching Calls
- Request Date
- 19 Mar 2025
- Response Date
- 07 Apr 2025
- Information Requested
We would be grateful if you could please provide us with the following:
- All Scottish Ambulance Service protocols/ policies/ guidance relating to triage and dispatch, including the specific questions required to be answered by the call handlers into the IAED or the Manchester Triage System or other system used at that time, to manage triage and dispatch, as at March 2021;
- All Scottish Ambulance Service protocols/ policies/ guidance relating to re-prioritisation or call upgrades, as at March 2021.
- Response
The Scottish Ambulance Service implemented the Clinical Response Model (CRM) for Emergency 999 calls in November 2016. The CRM aims to save more lives by more accurately identifying patients with immediately life-threatening conditions, such as cardiac arrest; and to safely and more effectively send the right type of resource first time to all patients based on their clinical need.
The model institutes a colour-coded system, which categorises 999 calls in terms of clinical need. Cases are coded purple, red, amber, yellow and green.
In less urgent cases, call handlers may spend more time with patients to better understand their health needs and ensure they send the most appropriate resource for their condition and clinical need.
The process is also designed to identify instances when an ambulance is not needed and instead the patient can be referred to an alternative pathway such as GPs, NHS24 or outpatient services. All calls are triaged into the following categories:
Purple: Our most critically ill patients. This is where a patient is identified as having a 10% or more chance of having a cardiac arrest. The actual cardiac arrest rate across this category is approximately 53%.
Red: Our next most serious category where a patient is identified as having a likelihood of cardiac arrest between 1% and 9.9%, or having a need for resuscitation interventions such as airway management above 2%. Currently the cardiac arrest rate in this category is approximately 1.5%.
Amber: where a patient is likely to need diagnosis and transport to hospital or specialist care. The cardiac arrest rates for all of these codes is less than 0.5%.
Yellow: a patient who has a need for care but has a very low likelihood of requiring life-saving interventions. For example, patients who have tripped or fallen but not sustained any serious injury.
Where a duplicate call has been received, this would be triaged as a new incident by the call handlers and, in some instances where an ambulance has not attended, a clinician may review the incident. The review may identify a need for a patient to be re-categorised to a higher or lower response depending on the clinical findings at the time of the call.
The Scottish Ambulance Service has a Welfare Call Back Process, please see the attached document, for when patients have waited in excess of the 120-minute ambulance arrival target time. This allows the patient to be reassessed and prioritised appropriately.
In relation to the questions held within this system, as per Section 17 of Freedom of information act 2002 (FOISA), The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold the information that you have requested.
To help explain the application of this exemption, the requested information is owned by a third-party company. The questions asked are taken from the ProQA system and are the intellectual property of the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch (IAED), the Scottish Ambulance Service are licenced for their use only. The Scottish Ambulance Service only hold the data for the purpose of requirement.
- Response Documents
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Timed Admission Protocol 46 Welfare Call Back Process Redacted 1 (1) (PDF | 456KB)
