The 061 Health Emergency Centre in Andalusia, which belongs to the Andalusian Health Service of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Regional Government of Andalusia, received a total of 2,930,071 calls in 2023. This means that the eight 061 health emergency coordination centres in Andalusia handled an average of 8,027 calls per day.
Of all the calls received, the 061 emergency line stands out as the one with the highest volume with 819,625 calls (30%), followed by the 112 line (with 19%) and the Andalusian Telecare Service (13%). The rest of the requests for assistance are distributed among other lines, such as the provincial emergency lines of the health centres (6.1%) or those received through Salud Responde, the health transport line and for the internal management of the emergency teams.
The 061 coordinating centres, one in each Andalusian province, have received 1,406,381 requests for urgent health care from Andalusians, 5.3% less than in 2022. The main reasons for requesting assistance are related to alteration of vital signs and level of consciousness, such as fainting or suspected stroke; followed by abdominal, chest or back pain. The 061 coordination centres recorded an increase of 1.5% in requests for assistance for serious trauma, 1.7% for respiratory distress or dyspnoea and 1.9% for traffic accidents compared to the previous year.
Of the total number of requests for assistance attended in 2023, 20.7% were resolved without the need to mobilise health resources, while the coordinating centres in Andalusia have activated the primary care emergency teams and the 061 health emergency teams of the Community on 50% of the occasions for the direct care of patients, both at home or on public roads.
Activity of emergency teams and emergency services
The emergency teams have been activated from the 061 emergency coordination centres on 653,399 occasions to attend to Andalusian citizens. The Andalusian Health Service has 1,143 primary care emergency resources at its disposal to attend to the majority of non-emergency and emergencies that can be delayed, as well as home emergencies, being mobilised on 581,630 occasions this year. In addition to these activations, the 061 health emergency teams have been mobilised on 71,769 occasions, mostly for the care of life-threatening patients.
The 736 health professionals of the 061 Health Emergency Centre in Andalusia (283 doctors, 233 nurses and 220 health emergency technicians) had an average of 197 emergency interventions per day in 2023. Of the total number of activations, 2.9% of them were by air, through the five medicalised helicopters that 061 has in our Community, which were mobilised on 2,053 occasions this year, 5% more than the previous year.
By land, 74.5% of the assistance (53,322) was carried out by the 061 emergency health teams made up of doctors, nurses and emergency technicians. The remaining 22.8% were attended by the advanced coordination teams (ECA), made up of nurses and emergency technicians (12,951) and the basic life support team (3,443).
These teams of professionals from the 061 Health Emergency Centre in Andalusia attended to a total of 59,125 patients in 2023, most of them in life-threatening situations. The most frequent pathologies presented by these patients are related to serious trauma and cardiac problems, such as acute coronary syndrome or arrhythmias. Also noteworthy are the interventions on patients for syncope, acute dyspnoea, convulsions or stroke and cardiorespiratory arrest.
In urban areas, these teams attend to 91% of people in less than 15 minutes. With these results, users who have required attention from the emergency teams in Andalusia have rated the service with a 9.3 out of 10. 54.8% of the people attended by 061 in our Community are men with an average age of 63 years compared to 45.2% who are women with an average age of 68 years.