Urgent medical assistance gains momentum

Maria Middelares General Hospital, the Fire Department Zone Centre and the Leie & Schelde Care Group are all joining forces. On 1 September 2021, they will start working on a Paramedical Intervention Team (PIT) in Merelbeke. The PIT will help to ensure that each patient in the greater Ghent area receives the right care for the right indication.

Strong together

After a call from the FPD Public Health to increase the number of PITs, the Fire Department Zone Centre, the Leie & Schelde Care Group and Maria Middelares General Hospital started a constructive and intense collaboration. Each partner has provided it’s own expertise, informed by it’s particular insight. As of 1 September, the PIT will be ready to offer the appropriate help to the public. The PIT will be primarily active in the southeast border of Ghent.

What does a PIT do?

A PIT is a special ambulance that is staffed by an ambulance driver from the fire department and an emergency nurse who holds a special professional degree in intensive care and emergency care. The PIT focusses on interventions whose severity fallssomewhere between a MUG (Mobile Urgency Group) and a classic 112 (the emergency number) ambulance, though it may also be the initial assistance when a MUG cannot be at the site immediately.

The emergency nurses have a large number of ‘standing orders’ at their disposal. They are able to perform a limited number of medical treatments, under certain conditions, and to administer well-defined medication. In case of questions, they can consult the urgent care physician at the hospital via video conferencing.

Experienced nurses from the A&E of Maria Middelares General Hospital have undergone additional obligatory PIT education, supervised by the emergency physicians with Maria Middelares General Hospital and Leuven University Hospital (UZ Leuven). They also have completed an internship with current PIT staff at the St Vincent General Hospital in Deinze and the St Jan General Hospital in Bruges.

The ambulance drivers with the Fire Department Zone Centre manage the PIT. Until recently, they performed interventions in Ghent with a classic ambulance. They know the region and have considerable experience with interventions; the so-called ‘pre-hospital work’. The operational experience of the ambulance drivers perfectly complements the medical expertise of the emergency nurses.

The ambulance drivers have educated the emergency nurses on radio communication, the equipment to evacuate patients and on vehicle inventory. The nurses, for their part, have taught the ambulance drivers how to draw medication, what some medications are used for and where they can be found.

New challenge

With the PIT, the A&E of Maria Middelares General Hospital is taking the first steps towards providing urgent medical assistance outside the hospital.

‘The whole team has really dedicated itself to this in recent months. All the nurses who perform this function have completed obligatory theoretical and practical training. That makes us prepared for a variety of situations, resuscitation...even for an emergency birth. The standing orders not only offer a solid base, they also provide the necessary autonomy to be able to help patients or victims in accordance with the guidelines. Consider the administration of adequate pain medication or medication for allergic reactions.’

Philippe Fortain - Head Nurse

‘The A&E of Maria Middelares General Hospital has grown a lot in the last few years. We thought it was time to reach past our walls and to help the community, always paying attention to quality and patient hospitality.’

Dr van Sassenbroeck, Head of the A&E Department

‘The care site in Lemberg, thanks to its favourable location, will be expanded into a site for specialised care. At the Leie & Schelde Care Group, we are also proud that the PIT will be stationed in Lemberge. As such, we are doing our part to contribute to qualitatively urgent medical assistance.’

Egbert Lachaert, chair of the Leie & Schelde Care Group

‘An emergency nurse and an ambulance driver combine two things: medical expertise and experience on the ground. The ambulance drivers from the Fire Department Zone Centre can count on their years of experience with interventions. They know how to perform an evacuation with a ladder truck, for example. That makes for a resourceful PIT team, right from the start, that will not be caught off guard easily.’

Colonel Wim Van Zele, zone commander for the Fire Department Zone Centre

Management by Emergency Central Switchboard 112

As a civilian, you cannot choose whether you want to call an ambulance, PIT or MUG. Only the Emergency Central Switchboard 112 has the authority to do that. The operators determine, based on the statutory decision tree, which mode provides the most appropriate care within the shortest possible time frame.

The introduction of the supplemental PIT facilitates the selection of operator, who can then align the assistance even better with the civilian’s request for help. The PIT, just like a classic ambulance, can be driven to the closest indicated hospital.