The 061 emergency coordination centres of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Andalusian Regional Government handled a total of 1,436,673 calls during the first half of this year, which means that these centres handled a daily average of 7,937 calls in our community. The 061 Health Emergency Centre of Andalusia has eight coordinating centres, one in each Andalusian province, from which all requests for urgent or emergency care made by Andalusians via the different access lines to the 061 emergency centre, 112, the provincial emergency lines, Teleassistance or Salud Responde are dealt with.
The main reasons for which Andalusians have requested attention have been neurological alterations (19.2%) among which are fainting, suspected stroke or alterations in the level of consciousness. These are followed by non-traumatic pain (15.3%), such as abdominal, thoracic or back pain; dyspnoea or breathing difficulties (9.7%); alterations in vital signs (9.2%); trauma (8.2%), psychiatric problems (7%), gastrointestinal problems (4.2%) and traffic accidents (2.4%). The rest of the attendances correspond to other reasons, such as haemorrhages, allergies and poisoning, among others.
In the first six months of the year, the 061 emergency coordination centres responded to a total of 697,744 requests for assistance. Of the total number of requests received in this period, 7% correspond to emergency situations and 46.7% to non-emergencies that cannot be delayed, while the rest are emergencies that can be delayed and notifications from home. In addition, 20% of all requests received were resolved by the coordinating centres themselves without the need to mobilise resources from the Andalusian Public Health System.
The 061 health emergency teams were mobilised on 36,019 occasions to attend to the majority of emergency situations in situ, with a satisfaction rating of over 9 out of 10 for the people attended to by the health professionals, according to the results of the survey carried out annually by the 061 Health Emergency Centre, especially valuing the interest shown in their problem, the friendliness during the call and the telephone advice received. These 061 medical teams arrived at the scene of the incident in less than 15 minutes in 91% of cases.
Human and healthcare resources
The Centro de Emergencias Sanitarias, directed by Fernando Ayuso, has the 821 professionals that 061 has in Andalusia (279 medical staff, 234 nursing staff, 218 technical health emergency staff and 90 technical, administrative and management professionals). This centre is responsible for the on-site health care of people with medical emergencies that pose a serious risk to life or may have serious and permanent consequences for the individual, whose diagnosis or treatment requires immediate and highly complex assistance. This service includes land or air transport to the reference hospital if necessary to continue treatment.
The resources available to 061 in Andalusia are strategically distributed. The 061 Health Emergency Centre, which manages this service, has 30 mobile ICUs, equipped with a doctor, nurse and emergency technician, 7 Advanced Coordination Teams (ECA) – 3 based in Malaga, two in Seville, 1 in Vera (Almeria) and 1 in Ubeda (Jaen) – which are staffed by nurses and emergency health technicians connected by telemedicine with the coordinating doctor and 1 Basic Life Support Team, also in Seville, with two emergency health technicians.
In addition, the health emergency service has 9 logistical support vehicles for collective emergencies, one per province except for Cadiz, which has a second team located in Campo de Gibraltar, 5 medicalised helicopters, located in Seville, Cadiz, Malaga, Baza (Granada) and Cordoba, and 4 Decontamination Units. In addition to all of these, there are a total of 12 units for inter-hospital land transfers of critical patients.
