Clinical

How Ambulance Relief Centres work

Ambulance Relief Centres are designed specifically to receive ambulance-conveyed patients and provide rapid clinical assessment, diagnostics and treatment in one location.

Patients are identified by ambulance clinicians using agreed clinical criteria and diverted directly to an ARC instead of an emergency department. On arrival, they are handed over immediately to the ARC clinical team, allowing the ambulance to return quickly to frontline service.

Patients are then assessed, diagnosed and treated within the facility, before being safely discharged or referred onward if further care is required.

Core clinical services

ARC facilities typically include:

Dedicated ambulance handover bays

Clinical triage and senior decision-making

Diagnostic rooms and treatment areas

Consulting rooms for clinical assessment

Pharmacy support

Plaster and treatment rooms

Discharge and observation areas

Dedicated ambulance handover bays

Clinical triage and senior decision-making

Diagnostic rooms and treatment areas

Consulting rooms for clinical assessment

Pharmacy support

Plaster and treatment rooms

Discharge and observation areas

Facilities are designed to support efficient patient flow, including multiple treatment bays, nurse stations, diagnostic rooms and consultation spaces within a single integrated environment.

Typical patient groups

ARCs treat ambulance-conveyed patients with conditions such as:

  • Shortness of breath or breathing difficulties
  • Minor trauma and injuries, including falls
  • Abdominal pain
  • Collapse or fainting episodes
  • Fever or infection-related illness
  • Exacerbations of long-term conditions such as COPD, heart failure or diabetes
  • Dizziness, pain or general medical concerns where further assessment is required

 

Patients with life-threatening conditions, major trauma, or critical instability continue to be conveyed directly to emergency departments.

Clinical staffing

Typical ARC staffing includes:

  • Doctors providing clinical leadership and decision-making
  • Senior nurses and advanced practitioners
  • Paramedic liaison roles
  • Diagnostic staff
  • Pharmacy support
  • Operational and clinical management

 

This multidisciplinary team enables a complete assessment-diagnosis-treatment pathway within a single facility.

In 2024, around 800 working days, each day, have been lost to these delays, which are only counted when they exceed 30 minutes. In aggregate, it is the full-time equivalent of nearly 1,400 paramedics over the course of a year.

Lord Darzi’s Independent Investigation into NHS Performance, 2024

If you wait more than 12 hours in A&E you are more than twice as likely to die within 30 days of being discharged than if you are seen within two hours

ONS data

One in five patients treated in corridors or waiting room

RCEM Study October 2025

It was cold room with no natural light or access to toilet or shower facilities nearby. Temporary measure for no beds in the hospital. Patients felt undervalued and forgotten about.

RCN Survey Respondent, 2025

I had to change an incontinent, frail patient with dementia on the corridor, by the vending machine. It was undignifying, felt so bad at the same time it was my duty to deliver care.

RCN Survey Respondent, 2025

Spending a full 12-hour shift queuing outside hospital is soul-destroying. It’s tiring, it’s repetitive and it’s awful for patients.

UNISON quote