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Operations & systems
Ambulance central to alcohol and self-harm pathways
Alcohol, drugs and self-harm emergencies in a national unscheduled care system: a retrospective observational study
Emergency Medicine Journal · 2026-09-23 · Added 24 September 2026
A Scottish national cross-sectional study of 2.7 million unscheduled care pathways found 2.7% involved alcohol, drugs or self-harm, with the commonest journey being ambulance to ED to admission at a direct NHS cost of about £216.9 million.
- Study type
- Cross-sectional
- Design
- Retrospective cross-sectional study of linked national data
- Participants
- 2,721,120 unscheduled care pathways in Scotland (2022–23)
- Main finding
- 2.7% of pathways involved alcohol, drugs and/or self-harm; the top 30 pathways cost about £216.9 million, with ambulance-to-ED-to-admission the most common journey
- Caveat
- Relies on service flags and coded data of variable completeness; Scottish service configuration differs from Australian arrangements
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). A UK health-system mapping study, but it quantifies how central ambulance transport is to alcohol, drug and self-harm presentations — the same demand pressure Australian services carry — so it frames rather than changes practice.
Learning goal
Understand how alcohol, drug and self-harm presentations shape unscheduled care pathways and demand across Australian systems.
More
- Topic: Operations & systems
- Daily scan: 24 September 2026
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