Controlled Trial of a Cardiac Ambulance Service Manned by Ambulance Personnel

Abstract

Ambulances manned by specially-trained crews and equipped for the resuscitation of patients with arrhythmias have been claimed to reduce the mortality of heart attacks. While there can be no doubt that such services have saved lives, no comparisons have been made between these and routine ambulance services. In Nottingham a special cardiac ambulance manned by trained ambulance personnel was established in 1973 and as it proved impossible to man the special service continuously, it was decided to conduct a trial of the efficacy of the new service by comparing the mortality of patients brought to hospital by the cardiac ambulance with that of patients brought in by the routine ambulance service.