Pre-Alert '25; Roadside to Resus
The Resus Room
Simon Laing
4.9 • 708 Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How, when and why to make the call…
The pre-alert is one of the most powerful and sometimes most painful parts of emergency care. It can feel like the Spanish Inquisition, trigger tension between pre-hospital and ED teams, or drop another challenge into an already overflowing department. But done well, a pre-alert isn't an irritation; it's an opportunity to line up critical care for the next patient and genuinely improve outcomes.
In this episode, Simon, Rob and James break down The UK NHS Ambulance Services and Emergency Department Pre-Alert Guideline, jointly released in July 2025 by RCEM and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. It's the first national attempt to give clear, shared expectations on who to pre-alert, what to say, and how to receive those calls, it's full of practical recommendations for both sides of the phone.
We kick things off with a review of the evidence base, including brand-new studies showing just how varied pre-alert practice is across the UK. From inconsistent criteria and mixed training to the problem of "pre-alert fatigue", the data make a strong case for standardisation.
We then walk through the new guideline's key principles: pre alerting for pre-specified physiological parameters or specific conditions.
We finish off with top tips for making and taking better pre-alerts - selling a story, leading with the headline, and understanding what the other side actually needs. This episode combines frontline pragmatism with real-world research and might just make your next pre-alert smoother, faster, and better received.
Once again we'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!
Simon, Rob & James
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Recess Room podcast. |
| 0:03.5 | Five, four, three, two, one, fire. |
| 0:12.3 | So hi, and welcome back to the Reeser Room podcast. |
| 0:15.5 | I'm Simon Lang. |
| 0:17.1 | I'm Rob Fenwick. |
| 0:18.2 | And I'm James Hayes. |
| 0:19.4 | And we're back all together after our fantastic live |
| 0:23.2 | Roadside Teresa sponsored by Zol in London and when I say fantastic I mean it was fantastic for us |
| 0:30.2 | I'm not giving the feedback from the audience and stating it was absolutely perfect yeah we're |
| 0:35.1 | all happy families now aren't we it's really nice to all get together. |
| 0:38.2 | I think people who are listening have this lovely image of us all sitting around, having a cup of coffee and all, you know, having hugs and having lovely eye contact. And in fact, we're all just sitting in our cold offices at home, aren't we? So it's quite nice to see each other as well as, you know, a handful of listeners. It was great. Yeah, it was a great bunch of people that were down there, had an amazing day. |
| 0:56.5 | And interestingly, this topic... a handful of listeners. It was great. Yeah, it was a great bunch of people that were down there, |
| 0:55.0 | had an amazing day. And interestingly, this topic goes beautifully in parallel with that live |
| 1:01.0 | event, doesn't it, a few weeks ago? So hopefully we've got some good stuff to discuss today. Hey, |
| 1:05.5 | boys? Yeah, we have because we're covering pre-alerts. And we've covered this before on |
| 1:10.6 | Roadside to Re to recess but there's |
| 1:11.9 | been a new recent national document which brings about some new advice and some really good |
| 1:17.8 | points that we can cover on this really key part of a critically unwell patient's journey. |
| 1:23.3 | So before we get into it, a huge thanks to Zol Medical Corporation for not only delivering |
| 1:28.7 | that live roadside to recess, but bringing you the podcast, free open access and available to you |
| 1:33.7 | in their pursuit of excellent patient care. And once you've listened to this, make sure you |
| 1:38.9 | go over to the free CPD portal, theresceroom.com.ukuk and get your certificate for listening. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Simon Laing, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Simon Laing and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.