EM AND PHEM

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) is the UK busiest ambulance service, providing free point-of-access healthcare to more than 7 million people who work and live in London. LAS operates over an area of approximately 620 square miles with 70 dedicated ambulance stations.

LAS employs over 4,500 staff working in a wide range of roles from call handlers, resource dispatchers and operational staff to nurses, doctors and paramedics. These staff provide a 24/7, 365 day a year service responding to 999 calls which include trauma, mental health and medical emergencies.

King's College London Emergency Medicine Society (KCL EMS) has run a successful Prehospital Care Programme since 2009 in which medical and nursing students go out on shifts with the LAS. Paramedics from LAS have kindly mentored our medical students, introducing them to the world of Prehospital Medicine and Emergency Care. This has allowed the next generation of KCL doctors to experience real emergencies and to learn about and appreciate the discipline of Paramedic Science.

King's College Hospital (KCH) is one of London's busiest teaching hospitals, with a strong profile of hospital specialties and services primarily serving the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Bromley.

The Emergency Department at KCH sees more than 120,000 emergency patients every year – about 350 patients a day. It was also the setting for the first 6 seasons of the award winning television show '24 Hours in A&E'.

The Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care (FPHC) aims to set and maintain clinical standards for all professionals in the speciality of Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine (PHEM). This includes a broad range of PHEM practitioners from first aiders, paramedics, doctors, nurses, first responders, voluntary aid workers and remote medics including multi agency teams such as police, fire and armed forces.

The FPHC has student sub-committees which support the various Prehospital Care Programmes and Emergency Medicine Societies across the UK. KCL EMS is proud to be a member-organisation of the Pan-London Prehospital Initiative.

The Pan-London Prehospital Initiative is a way by which student/LAS/physician prehospital enthusiasts across London can keep in touch with the events and happenings in their area or with their university prehospital care programmes. More information can be found on their website and Facebook page.

King's College London Wilderness Medicine Society (KCL WMS) is about medicine and research in places where others won’t go.

KCL EMS has run many successful joint-events with KCL WMS over the last few years including multiple conferences. In addition to the events run with KCL EMS, WMS organises yearly expedition trips and talks from leading wilderness medicine experts. It is a perfect blend of medicine, fitness, exploration and adventure. More information can be found on their website and Facebook page.

The Prehospital Care Programme (PCP) was developed in 2007 by Dr Emma Lightbody, who was then a medical student at Bart's and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Following organising London Ambulance Service and London's Air Ambulance Service observation shifts to further her interests in Prehospital Care, she developed the Bart's PCP with her co-founders and mentors Dr Anne Weaver, Dr Dane Goodsman and Paramedic Mr Craig Cassidy.

The PCP offers Bart's medical students and opportunity to integrate Prehospital Care into their medical curriculum by going on observation shifts, attending monthly academic forums, keeping a portfolio of skills and cases and writing reflective essays. This was the first PCP of it's kind in the UK and has since been adapted by many medical schools including KCL EMS. More information can be found on their website and Facebook page.