NCEPOD: Trauma - Who Cares? - London Health Programmes

4Prehospital careFigure 9. Average response times and time at scene: ambulance vs. helicopter90Time (minutes)807060504030ambulancehelicopter20100Time to hospital from emergency callLength of time at sceneTransport system and prehospital airwaymanagementFrom the cases where it could be determined, 23/56 (41.1%)patients transported by helicopter were intubated at thescene versus 32/440 (7.3%) of those patients transportedby ambulance. Additionally it was found that a greaterpercentage of patients transported by ambulance arrived athospital with a noisy or blocked airway compared with thosetransported by helicopter (52/380; 13.7% v 3/54; 5.6%).Patients treated and transferred by a helicopter system had agreater chance of defi nitive airway control than those treatedand transferred by a road ambulance system.Transport system and severity of injuriesThe severity of injuries in both groups was comparable(Table 30).Table 30. Transport system by injury severity scoreISSRoad ambulanceNumber ofpatientsHelicopterNumber ofpatients% %16 - 24 240 54.5 31 52.525 - 35 156 35.5 20 33.936 - 75 44 10.0 8 13.6Total 440 5941