London chEMS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
London chEMS: a retrospective, descriptive review of 2-years of Emergency Medical Service callouts involving crystal methamphetamine, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and mephedrone in London and the link to chemsex
IRAS ID
351864
Contact name
Peter Kingsley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 31 days
Research summary
A retrospective, cross sectional, descriptive (non-analytic) review of 2-years of ambulance callouts for incidents involving Crystal methamphetamine, Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), Gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and mephedrone use and the link to chemsex in London.
The study will combine electronic key word searches of ambulance callout logs and clinical patient contact reports logged between 01.01.23 and 31.12.24. The study will report core characteristics of the incident and patient for all identified hits. Stratified random sampling will be used to guide a further manual review of cases to extract further data points.
To include Individuals (of any age) who have contact with the London Ambulance Service as the result of an emergency callout in which the use of crystal methamphetamine, GHB / GBL or mephedrone is identified.
The study will seek to identify the frequency of such incidents and to describe characteristics across 5 themes:
1. The patient
Age
Ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Home postcode area (root)
2. The ambulance service contact / incident
Day of the week
Time of day
Location (London borough)
Type of location (public place, private place, licenced sex-on-premises venue, healthcare facility)
Who called for the ambulance
Drugs taken in a chemsex context
3. The drug(s) taken
Drug name
Route of administration
co-ingestants
4. The outcome
Patient (person) not found
Patient not conveyed to hospital
Destination hospital
Patient died on scene
5. Police involvement
% of incidents co-responded with police - and why
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/LO/0142
Date of REC Opinion
18 Mar 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion