Development and implementation of club specific ambulance referral guidlines

The objectives of this intervention are to develop guidelines detailing indications for ambulance transfer to hospital for clubbers with recreational drug toxicity and to train club medic staff to use the guidelines. The guidelines are based on an assessement of various club medic rooms, facilities available, the background and previous training of staff working within these rooms, and on a literature review. Prior to implementing the guidelines we ran a training session for all club medics to introduce the guidelines and discuss general issues in the management of patients with recreational drug toxicity, using case scenarios.Following the initial development of a pilot set of guidelines, an audit of their use identified training needs relating to the assessment of unwell clubbers with recreational drug toxicity and revisions required to the pilot version of the guidelines. After training related to the revised guidelines, all the club medic staff were confident in their ability to assess unwell clubbers with recreational drug toxicity, the use of the guidelines, and also when to call an ambulance.