Emergency Bed Service

We can help London GPs to make arrangements for seriously ill patients to be admitted to hospital. We take case histories, clinical details, and notes on the patient’s circumstances before negotiating with hospital bed managers or on-call specialists to find an appropriate bed.

We collect information on the availability of intensive care beds for adults and children across three-quarters of England.

We contact intensive care units several times a day to determine their capacity. Using this information we can direct hospital-based clinicians to the nearest available intensive care bed for their patient.

We coordinate the service that transfers new-born babies (neonates) between hospitals in London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

By monitoring the availability of neonatal intensive care cots, we are able to identify a suitable cot for a sick baby and arrange for one of the Neonatal Transfer Service’s transport teams to transfer the baby between hospitals.

We monitor which hospitals in and beyond London have paediatric beds and cubicles available, and can help clinicians find beds when their children’s wards are full.

Demand for this service tends to be high in November and December when there is an increase in conditions such as bronchitis and pneumonia amongst children.

We can provide health professionals with information about the units available in their local area for mental health patients.

We alert key health agencies in London when a major incident is declared.

During the incident we collate information about the casualties that have been treated by our ambulance staff—this includes numbers and the types of injuries patients have suffered. We then pass this information on to hospitals, specialist units and other relevant organisations.

MedicAlert is a global charity that provides lifesaving services to its members.

By wearing their MedicAlert bracelet or necklace, which is marked with an identification number and emergency telephone number, members enable emergency professionals to quickly access details about their medical condition, medication, allergies or individual wishes from their secure, electronic record.

Our team provides 24/7 assistance via a dedicated emergency telephone line, which is engraved on member’s jewellery discs. This means MedicAlert members can be assured that their vital information is always available and will help them get the right help at the right time.

For more information, call 01908 951045.