Emergency response no matter the weather or journey time, using patient need and reducing time to interventions as the main determinant for progressing to scene.

Congrats Mike on the very deserved result of much hard graft and professional development. Win for PICT team and the sickest patients in the Highlands to have you aboard!

Between taskings we briefly muse on why we have to explain the @highlandpict logo colour scheme to folks not working in the Highlands of Scotland…#aurora #prehospitalcareunderlights

Congratulations to our Inverness Advanced Practitioner in Critical Care, Mike Adams who was successfully signed off by our @Scotambservice Associate Medical Director and APCC Clinical Lead @trjparke today. Well done Mike! 👏👏

Prehospital research publication for major trauma in the @NoSTraumaNtwk where logistics and topography combine to challenge assumptions and drive learning one case at a time https://t.co/UbZ5DgBsld

A colleague so universally respected by everyone scientists question he may be the elusive ‘fifth fundamental force of nature’…

Next up ⁦@RuralWONCA2022⁩ Gordon Smith (still standing after cycling to Limerick!)…an excellent presentation re the groundbreaking ⁦@HighlandPICT⁩ team … lots of interest here from a global audience ⁦@ScotGEMStories⁩ ⁦@StAndMedicine⁩ ⁦@NHSHighland⁩

145 prehospital taskings for the PICT team in April. 50% of cases were to ‘ILT - immediate life threatening’ ambulance codes. Furthest RTC 34 miles. Longest journey 46mins. #highlandemergencycare

We’re all a bit speechless and not a little bit grateful. Many thanks for all your votes and kind words:)

‘Raigmore Hospital & UK-Med’s Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Andy Kent flew to Poland a week ago, before crossing into Ukraine five days ago. Listen to Andy’s interview at 1h12mins in to 1hr17mins. https://t.co/8ba5O77mVY Donate to UK-Med's appeal at

1.PICT Medic/AP are regularly contacted for senior clinical decision support by colleagues considering conveyance to the Trauma Unit, often at great distance across our remote and rural patch.

2.“Is your patient unstable or very unwell? Do you have time to discuss fully?" - zero need to say how busy we are. If we’ve chosen to take the call, colleagues don't need to hear our other pressures, and us detailing them just clouds both our minds for the decision at hand.

3.”What is your Plan A just now?" - most calls are seeking senior rv of a completely sensible and considered plan, they're not lost at sea or needing radical revision, but a safety cross check in their own plan and us to be available for further contact if/when things change.

4.”The only thing I would add is...." - regardless of whether we are entirely reversing a plan or massively adjusting it, framing our guidance as the last addition in a sequence of great care is both true and respectful to the effort that has gone into care up to that point.

5.”Is it OK to call you back in 10mins?”We don't promise 'in a minute' or 'soon' as all unlikely to be true if we’re truly held up..but few processes we engage in as double clinician team take >10mins & unless pt on the phone in arrest, then 10mins not too long to wait for advice

152 prehospital taskings for the PICT team in January. 10% cases were to cardio-respiratory arrests.More common taskings were to trauma cases such as car accidents, falls, stabbings and industrial accidents. Furthest RTC 53miles. Longest journey 50mins. #highlandemergencycare

https://t.co/HheYmlxTuB

Here since the beginning of the service five years ago, two of our now fully trained PICT APs first thoughts from back when it was a volunteer service built on a shared belief that highland patients deserved better and highland clinicians could deliver it. https://t.co/dqw6DhQ78g

https://t.co/isVzElrJvY

As part of our #ClinicalGovernance we review patient report forms from our voluntary responders & @HighlandPICT Team, Once you plot the PICT Team attendances on a map, you really see the area they cover; #majortrauma , #criticalillness and facilitating "admission avoidance".