Carbon Monoxide Pre-hospital Screening - COPS study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Carbon Monoxide Pre-hospital Screening Study
IRAS ID
173045
Contact name
Theresa Foster
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
Carbon monoxide (CO) is the commonest type of accidental poisoning, often leading to brain, lung and heart problems and potentially death. Annual estimates suggest about 4,000 people attend United Kingdom (UK) Emergency Departments (ED) following CO poisoning (All-Parliamentary Gas Safety Group, 2011). However, accurate numbers regarding CO exposure are difficult to determine because the signs and symptoms of low-level CO poisoning may resemble viral infections or tiredness, leading to frequent misdiagnosis by health professionals.
Frontline 999 ambulance clinicians frequently attend patients in the home environment so are ideally placed to screen for CO in the ambient air, but the practice of measuring low-level CO exposure is not common place. This research would evidence whether such CO screening should form part of routine observations within UK ambulance services.
This research aims to use CO detectors worn by 25 ambulance clinicians, to measure the level of CO in the air at the scene of every incident they attend during a 12-month period. This will identify the number of patients exposed to CO (more than 5 parts per million) in a 999 emergency ambulance population of about 20,000 patients within the East of England. Data will be gathered to inform the social and clinical presentation of CO exposed patients (particularly those that have experienced low-level exposure) that would otherwise not have been detected.
CO exposed adult patients and ambulance clinicians (up to a maximum of 55 participants) will be invited to consent to take part in semi-structured interviews or focus groups to gather their views and experience about pre-hospital screening for CO. Emerging themes will identify problems and enablers that will inform whether CO screening should be part of routine observations in the UK ambulance setting.
All CO exposed patients will be referred to the National Gas Emergency Service to make safe their environment.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
15/WA/0164
Date of REC Opinion
30 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion