Specialist ambulances to transport critically ill between London hospitals

A specialist ambulance service to transport critically ill patients between hospitals will be launched in London on Saturday.

The Adult Critical Care Emergency Support Service (ACCESS) will see a fleet of specialist ambulances in the capital safely move patients between local hospitals and specialist centres.

It will focus on moving the sickest patients to centres where they can receive specifically tailored care, such as a cardiac centre or a hyper-acute stroke unit.

The four vehicles will carry extra equipment, including ventilators and specialist monitors, and be staffed by expert clinicians so they effectively act as a network of mobile intensive care units.

The ambulance fleet will be based at sites across London and is expected to transport around 2,000 patients a year.

Clinicians will staff the modified ambulances under consultant supervision, with the London Ambulance Service (LAS) supplying call handling, crews and vehicles. Other support functions will be carried out by partners in South West and North West London.

A dedicated phone line will be made available for clinicians at the LAS emergency control centre, who will dispatch vehicles once agreed by a consultant on duty.

The ACCESS programme is modelled on the successful North East London Critical Care Transfer And Retrieval (NECCTAR) service, which facilitated the long-range transfer of adults with complex needs during the Covid pandemic.

The service will be run by a partnership of Barts Health NHS Trust, St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, with the LAS.

Dr Mamoun Abu-Habsa, Joint Clinical Director of ACCESS, said: “Moving critically unwell patients across hospitals is inherently a high-risk activity, this transformational mobile ICU capability streamlines practice, education, transfer operations and overarching governance within a single service and a unified vision of equity of access to specialist care.

“Our Pan-London Specialist Teams will facilitate equitable access to highly specialised cardiac, trauma, neurosurgical and burns care and repatriate patients back to their local Intensive Care Units anywhere in the country. This is the largest such service in England.”

Dr James Marsh, Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer for St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group, said: “Critically unwell patients always need readily accessible specialist equipment and care – especially when moving between hospitals.

“Our collaboration means seriously ill and injured Londoners will receive the outstanding care they need from our teams of highly-talented clinicians, no matter where they live in the capital.”