About Emergency Medical Services
Emergency medical services in the UK will provide emergency services to people with acute illness or who have suffered an injury. This could be via the ambulance service or an emergency department.
The service is predominantly free at the point of use by the four National Health Services in the UK - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
There are various career options available within Emergency Medical Services, some positions are open to non-graduates, others require a suitable degree. Whichever route you decide upon you will need to have a caring nature, good communication and organisational skills and the ability to stay calm in challenging situations.
The following are some of the roles that are available through the NHS
Patient Transport Service driver (PTS)
Call handler/emergency medical dispatcher
Patient Transport Service (PTS) call handler
Find out more about the roles above by clicking the links.
In addition to the NHS ambulance service, there are some private and volunteer emergency medical services which are sometimes used at public events or large private sites, also Community first responders who are people that are dispatched by the ambulance control centre to attend a medical emergency in their local area. They can be members of the public who have received basic training, off duty ambulance staff or professionals from other emergency services such as firefighters or security officers.
Air ambulance services in the UK are not part of the NHS and are funded through charitable donations.
