Mental health crisis plans to be given access to ambulance staff

Following the success of the first pilot phase pf the National Record Locator, plans have been announced from the NHS that will allow ambulance staff to be given access to the mental health crisis plans.
Initial tests of the new National Record Locator service gave ambulance staff the ability to see if a patient they were treating had a plan, in pilot areas. Results showed that by joining up the services gave patients the best possible care, and the pilot is now set to expand with the first full record retrieval taking place in November.
“The pilot has been a great success, and has resulted in ambulance staff being more prepared of the patients they are on their way to help.” Said Mike Walker, head of integrating care programme at NHS Digital. “Now that the technology has been proven to work, we need to open it up and put clinical information in the hands of those that need it.”
Mike added “by giving our ambulance staff access to the right information at the right time will reduce the number of wasted trips to A&E and will give the patients better care.”