About SAS
The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is a Special NHS Board providing pre-hospital care to the ~5.5 million people in Scotland. In year end 2020 SAS received 1,578,415 calls and dealt with 806,849 incidents, of which 542,213 were emergencies. We also completed 606,015 patient transport journeys, 3,732 air ambulance missions, 42,679 inter hospital transfers, 2,617 transfer and retrievals across Scotland and 5,009 special operations teams responses.
SAS has an emerging research and innovation portfolio, contributing to national and international projects. As the national pre-hospital care provider we are strategically placed to co-design and deliver projects across the country, as well as multi-national initiatives. As of May 2022 our work is now supported by a dedicated Research, Development and Innovation team:
- Paul Gowens QAM; FCPara; MSc; PGCert; DipIMC
Associate Director - Dr Adam Lloyd RN; BN (Hons); MN; AFHEA; Ph.D
National Research and Innovation Manager - Jennifer Brown BA
Research Administrator/Coordinator
Latest / significant publications
- Gowens, P., Smith, K., Clegg, G., Williams, B., & Nehme Z. (2022). Global variation in the incidence and outcome of emergency medical services witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Resuscitation. (Online ahead of print)
- Bourke-Matas, E., Bosley, E., Gowens, P., Smith, K., & Bowles, K-A. (2020). Defining and recognising clinical deterioration in the prehospital setting (PRECLuDE study): a systematic scoping review. Irish Journal of Paramedicine, 5(1).
- Fitzpatrick, D., Duncan, E., Moore, M., Best, C., Andreis, F., Esposito, M., Dobbie, R., Corfield, A.R., et al. (2022). Epidemiology of emergency ambulance service calls related to COVID-19 in Scotland: a national record linkage study. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med, 30:9.
- Fitzpatrick, D., Ikegwuonu, T., Duncan, E., Esposito, M., Moore, M., Corfield, A., Best, C., Andreis, F., Dobbie, R., et al. (2021). An investigation of the clinical decision-making challenges experienced by ambulance clinicians during the management of patients presenting with COVID-19 symptoms. Emergency Medicine Journal, 38(9): A5.
SAS research contact details
We are keen to hear from ambulance staff, academia, research students (e.g Msc/Ph.D), industry and public sector organisations who would like to work with us on research and innovation projects.
If you are interested in doing research with Scottish Ambulance Service, please send an email to sas.rdi@nhs.scot