FOI 25-159 ACC Clinicians Job Descriptions
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-159 ACC Clinicians Job Descriptions
- Request Date
- 02 Apr 2025
- Response Date
- 29 Apr 2025
- Information Requested
• All job descriptions or other similar documents showing to tending to show the role of the clinical advisors/ validators/ navigators/ clinical response desk or other clinically trained staff within the Scottish Ambulance Service control room as at March 2021;
• All policy documents or other similar documents showing or tending to show the role of the clinical advisors/ validators/ navigators/ clinical response desk or other names for clinically trained staff within the control room for the Scottish Ambulance Service showing:
• What responsibilities they have, including but not limited to what system of triage they used
• What ability they have to recategorize calls, the criteria to allow them to do this and what action can be taken following this e.g. do clinical advisors have the ability to upgrade call priorities on the MPDS system and to arrange alternative modes of transport to get a patient to hospital if resources are limited as at around March 2021.
• All policy documents or other similar documents showing or tending to show at at around March 2021:
• When calls are referred to NHS24, the criteria for when these calls are passed to NHS24 and the responsibilities they have, including but not limited to what system of triage they used, what ability they have to recategorize calls, the criteria to allow them to do this and what action can be taken following this e.g. do NHS 24 have the ability to upgrade call priorities and to arrange alternative modes of transport to get a patient to hospital if resources are limited.
• The national response targets as at around March 2021 for arranging for an ambulance to “emergency response non-life threatening” and emergency response life threatening”
• The national response targets as at around March 2021 for arranging for an ambulance to respond to ongoing abdominal pain for a category “emergency response non-life threatening” and emergency response life threatening”
- Response
All job descriptions or other similar documents showing to tending to show the role of the clinical advisors/ validators/ navigators/ clinical response desk or other clinically trained staff within the Scottish Ambulance Service control room as at March 2021;
All policy documents or other similar documents showing or tending to show the role of the clinical advisors/ validators/ navigators/ clinical response desk or other names for clinically trained staff within the control room for the Scottish Ambulance Service showing:
What responsibilities they have, including but not limited to what system of triage they used
What ability they have to recategorize calls, the criteria to allow them to do this and what action can be taken following this e.g. do clinical advisors have the ability to upgrade call priorities on the MPDS system and to arrange alternative modes of transport to get a patient to hospital if resources are limited as at around March 2021.Please see the attached job descriptions that are held for a Clinical Advisor role, Advanced Practitioner – Critical Care and an Advanced Practitioner – Urgent and Primary Care.
The job descriptions include the main duties and responsibilities, the systems and equipment they are expected to use, what decisions and judgements they are expected to make and any knowledge, training and experience they are required to have.
The main systems clinical advisers use is the Manchester Telephone Triage System. Through an enhanced clinical conversation calls can be re-categorise calls in line with the systems outcomes.
When calls are referred to NHS24, the criteria for when these calls are passed to NHS24 and the responsibilities they have, including but not limited to what system of triage they used, what ability they have to recategorize calls, the criteria to allow them to do this and what action can be taken following this e.g. do NHS 24 have the ability to upgrade call priorities and to arrange alternative modes of transport to get a patient to hospital if resources are limited.
Every call is coded through the MPDS system and can identify patients who are deemed suitable for further clinical assessment and signposting to NHS24, NHS Inform online or to their own GP rather than have an ambulance dispatch. As NHS 24 is a separate health board, SAS do not have any oversight of the actions of NHS24, therefore, the Scottish Ambulance Service cannot provide what responsibilities or abilities NHS24 may have. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002, as information not held. This information can be requested from foi@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk
The national response targets as at around March 2021 for arranging for an ambulance to “emergency response non-life threatening” and emergency response life threatening”
Please see the attached data sheet detailing the target times in place for March 2021; these are for each triage colour detailed below:
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.
Please note: the actual response times show total time and do not factor in possible upgrading or downgrading that may occur depending on the patient condition. For example, a call may start out as a yellow call, subsequently be upgraded to a purple call sometime later, but only the total time from the first call received is shown. The starting point is always set for the colour category first determined, not the final colour category assigned. Where delays occur, clinical advisors maintain contact with the patient, checking their condition on an ongoing basis, and upgrading when appropriate.
The national response targets as at around March 2021 for arranging for an ambulance to respond to ongoing abdominal pain for a category “emergency response non-life threatening” and emergency response life threatening”
Target response times are related to triage colours only; we do not have response targets by incident complaints; it is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.- Response Documents
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Clinical Advisor Job Description And Person Spec (1) (1) (PDF | 302KB)
Advanced Practitioner, Critical Care JD (PDF | 212KB)
Advanced Practitioner (Urgent And Primary Care) JD (PDF | 171KB)
