FOI 26-117 Health Care Professional Booking Line
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-117 Health Care Professional Booking Line
- Request Date
- 03 Mar 2026
- Response Date
- 10 Mar 2026
- Information Requested
Please can you advise which healthcare professionals are eligible to use the Healthcare Professional ambulance booking telephone number? I am aware of circumstances where Doctors working privately are able to use this number but Paramedics working privately cannot. Please outline all inclusion and exclusion criteria for the use of this telephone number for a 'NOW' Response at outlined in the HCP Ambulance Booking Guide issued by SAS with associated rationale
- Response
The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) operates a dedicated Healthcare Professional (HCP) Ambulance Booking telephone number, predominantly aligned to GP practices and hospital settings, where a healthcare professional working within these environments has clinically assessed a patient and requires an ambulance response.
For the purposes of the HCP Ambulance Booking Guide, a “NOW” response refers to the timeframe in which an ambulance response is requested, rather than being a single emergency category. “NOW” encompasses requests for an ambulance immediately, within one hour, or within four hours, with the specific response prioritised in line with SAS’s clinical response model and the assessed needs of the patient.
Eligibility to use the HCP Ambulance Booking telephone number is based on the individual acting in the capacity of a healthcare professional making a clinically‑led request, with an understanding of the SAS booking and triage process, rather than on whether the individual is employed by the NHS or working privately. The Healthcare Professional Ambulance Booking Guide does not define eligibility based on employment status.
However, the Guide and associated operational arrangements do not provide unrestricted access to all healthcare professionals. Certain staff groups are excluded from using the HCP booking route, including care home staff, private ambulance providers, and other healthcare professionals such as dentists and physiotherapists, as requests from these services are managed through separate established pathways, including the public 999 route where appropriate.
The rationale for this approach is to ensure consistent clinical triage, appropriate use of ambulance resources, and to reflect the variability in service models and clinical settings across different professional groups.
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold recorded information setting out specific inclusion or exclusion criteria that distinguish between private doctors and private paramedics in relation to use of the HCP Ambulance Booking telephone number. Where such differences may have been perceived in practice, there is no documented policy or guidance explaining or formalising this distinction.
