Our ambulance officers and paramedics follow standard protocols when they treat patients. If your patient needs different treatment, you can ask us to make the following plans for them.
Ambulance management plans
An ambulance management plan sets out what we should do differently for a patient, when to do it and why. It can help us understand a patient’s needs, give them better care and keep everyone safe in complex situations.
Who can have a plan
An ambulance management plan can be helpful if your patient has complex medical, psychological or social conditions and would benefit from different treatment.
The treatment also needs to be reasonable and appropriate for us to give in pre-hospital settings.
How to get a plan
You need to be the patient’s treating GP or health professional to ask for an ambulance management plan.
To arrange a plan:
- email your request to us at QAS.AMP@ambulance.qld.gov.au – please only use this email if you’re a GP or health professional
- call the QAS regional office or ambulance station closest to where your patient lives.
Your request should include details about your patient’s condition, specific treatment strategies, and why they need a plan.
Approval for plans
The QAS Medical Director needs to approve the plan. If your request is complex, we might make changes or ask for more information about your patient’s clinical care.
If your patient has an approved plan, we’ll tell our paramedics about it when they treat them.
Acute resuscitation plans
You and your patient can make an acute resuscitation plan (ARP) that tells our paramedics what to do if they need resuscitation.
The plan is a medical order that sets out what treatment we should or shouldn’t give to sustain life. Our paramedics will use this to make decisions and carry out the wishes of the patient.
Making an ARP
There are clinical guidelines you need to follow to make an ARP. You need to talk with your patient about their wishes and get their consent. You may need to take other steps if they can’t give consent.
You should record your patient’s choices on the Queensland Government Acute Resuscitation Plan for adults (ARP) form and include details about their:
- medical condition
- capacity to make decisions about health care
- resuscitation plan and CPR
- end of life care
- consent, or an attorney or guardian’s consent.
The most senior medical practitioner available needs to authorise the form.
You can find more information about acute resuscitation plans for adults, including the ARP form and clinical guidelines on the Clinical Excellence Queensland website.
Where it applies
Acute resuscitation plans are valid for up to 12 months in any healthcare setting in Queensland.
This includes:
- the patient’s home
- public and private health services
- residential aged care facilities
- general practice and primary care settings.
Our paramedics will follow the ARP if we know about it when we treat them.