When the ambulance service uses a numerical score to replace a doctor’s clinical judgement, things will go wrong

Dr. Carl Heneghan, a UK urgent care general practitioner, called an ambulance for a patient using a dedicated clinician line.

In the past, his clinical assessment of the patient would have been sufficient for an ambulance to be dispatched. But something has changed.

The NHS is now remotely assessing the need for an ambulance response requested by doctors using a score, a number. This number is replacing the requesting doctor’s patient examination, experience, pattern recognition, context and knowledge of the patient’s history....<<<Read More>>>....