Medical Emergencies

What is an Emergency?

An emergency is generally an injury or condition of acute or sudden onset. This refers in particular to bleeding, severe or increasing pain or a change in the vital signs of life like the level of consciousness or difficulty in breathing. A condition that a patient is suffering from for a long time or is currently on treatment for may take a sudden turn for the worse is also an emergency.

Medical emergencies include:

Trauma

• All mass casualty patients
• Foreign bodies (e.g. fishbone in throat)
• Fractures
• Large wounds
• Deep cuts or wounds with profuse bleeding
• Burns and scalds especially those bigger than the palm of the hand, or located over the face, hands, feet or groin
• Severe sprains
  
• Joint dislocations
• Insect stings
• Snake and animal bites
• Multiple injuries
• Suicides
• Poisoning
• Lacerations
• Head injuries, especially those followed by drowsiness, vomiting, bleeding from ear, nose or mouth, or unusual behaviour

Non-Trauma

• Acute exacerbation of a chronic illness
• Acute complication of treated condition
• Acute appendicitis
• Acute myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Renal colic (urinary stones)
• Severe abdominal pain
• Gross haematuria (blood in the urine)
• Haematemesis (blood in vomitus)
• Melaena (passage of black tar-like stools)
• Acute gastroenteritis (e.g. food poisoning)
• Abscess
  
• Severe pain or increasing pain
• Severe vomiting
• High fever
• Chest pain
• Acute severe backache
• Urticaria and severe allergy (e.g. hives)
• Acute stroke with one-sided facial weakness, limb weakness or speech abnormalities
• Premature labour pains
  

What is an Non-Emergency?

A non-emergency is generally an old injury or condition, which has been present for a long time. The patient does not require immediate treatment and there is no immediate threat to the patient's life or limb.

Medical Non-Emergencies include:

Trauma

• Old scars
• Deformities of bones, limbs or spine
• Joint contractures
• Old fractures
• Old unreduced dislocations
• Chronic discharging wounds
• Chronic sprains
  
• Minor cuts and bruises
• Slight burns and scalds

Non-Trauma

• Cerebral palsy, spastics
• Cervical spondylosis
• Post polio
• Old hemiplegias, old strokes
• Old paraplegia
• Osteoarthritis knees not acutely worse

Defined Conditions

• Chronic vague symptoms like tiredness, dyspepsia not acutely worse
• Upper respiratory infection without fever
• Chronic cough
• Social problem requests admission (e.g. unable to cope with nursing at home)
• Psychosomatic problems with no acute presentations
• Chronic headaches on and off not getting worse acutely
• Insomnia
  

Chronic Aches

• Chronic whole body ache
• Chronic backache not getting worse
• Chronic leg pain, foot pain
• Long term neck ache
• Numbness of body for month

Alimentary System

• Mild vomiting and diarrhoea with absence of constitutional symptoms
• Constipation - chronic
• Loss of appetite, loss of weight
• Dieting
  
• Unobstructed painless intestinal hernia
• Chronic liver cirrhosis with no worse adverse sequelae
• Slight abdominal pain with normal vital signs and absence of sweatiness or breathlessness or peritoneal irritation

Non-urgent Obstetrics and Gynaecological cases

• Irregular menses, vaginal discharge - chronic in nature

Non-urgent ENT Conditions

• Chronic rhinitis
• Defective hearing
• Nasal polyp
• Wax in ears

Others

• Toothaches that are not associated with a swelling of the face and jaw with sweatiness or breathlessness
• Alcoholics (police cases) with normal mental state
• Drunk driving cases with normal mental state