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The Urgent & Emergency Care Plan 2025/26: Evolution, Promise & Challenges

The NHS England Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) plan for 2025/26, published on 6 June 2025, marks what officials describe as “a turning point for the NHS” and “the most transformative agenda we have seen in over 2 generations.” But how does this latest iteration differ from previous efforts, what are its strengths and weaknesses, and what core strategies could actually deliver meaningful…

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Emergency toxicology insights on differentiating serotonin syndrome from NMS and stimulant toxicity. A commentary on the latest EMCRIT podcast, including diagnostic challenges and clinical examination reliability.

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Review the top trauma and resuscitation trials discussed at ICEM 2025. Expert summaries and critical appraisals from St Emlyn’s cover transfusion strategies, airway management, oxygenation, fibrinogen, and more.

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Emergency Centre Thoracotomy in South Africa.

Background I was so pleased to see this paper from a team including a great friend of the podcast, Dr Katya Evans at Mitchell’s Plain hospital in Cape Town. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Kat and her husband Craig several times and it’s truly inspirational what they do in emergency and prehospital care. You can read more about that here. I remember being amazed at just how much penetrating…

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Is there still room for compassion in emergency care?

At the recent Royal College of Emergency Medicine Annual Scientific Conference, I explored a more pressing question: Is there still room for compassion in emergency care? With the pace and pressures of emergency departments (EDs) today, it’s easy to lose sight of compassion, even though it’s at the heart of patient care. This blog post summarises that talk, digging into the reality of compassion…

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Emergency Centre Thoracotomy in South Africa: Real-World Insights from District-Level Hospitals

Background I was delighted to see this paper published from a great friend of the podcast and blog, Dr Katya Evans. She’s a truly insprational human and emergency physician practicing in Cape Town, South Africa. A few years ago I was lucky enough to visit Kat and her husband Craig at Mitchell’s Plain hospital. I was so impressed at the kleel of care they delivered for the trauma patients…

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Emergency departments (EDs) often seem to shift from calm to crisis in an instant. Why? This article explores ED crowding through the lens of complexity science and self-organised criticality, explaining how minor changes—like a few extra patients—can trigger disproportionate chaos.

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Derivation and Validation of the Simplified Bleeding Audit Triage Trauma (sBATT) Score

Motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) are a major global health burden, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), where formal emergency medical services are often absent. In these settings, laypeople—taxi drivers, police officers, or firefighters—may be first on scene. Without access to monitoring equipment or clinical training, these bystanders face the difficult task of determining…

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Nat May summarises the Noosa Paeds emergency meeting. Marlene Soma covered ENT emergencies, including auricular haematomas, otitis media, and nasal fractures. Marie-Clare Elder discussed legal implications of psychiatric harm. Craig Walker emphasized appropriate fluid therapy in pediatric and more!

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Acute behavioural disturbance (ABD) is a high-stakes presentation in emergency medicine, often requiring rapid pharmacological sedation. While haloperidol has long been a go-to antipsychotic, recent evidence suggests olanzapine may offer similar efficacy with fewer side effects.

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Podcast - Social Media and Artifical Intelligence in Medicine with Peter Brindley at LTC

Listening time: 21.04 Synopsis In this episode of the St Emlyn’s podcast, hosts Iain Beardsell and Natalie May chat with Peter Brindley at the London Trauma Conference, about the significance of digital footprints, social media, and artificial intelligence (AI) in the medicine. They discuss the importance of managing one’s online presence, the evolution of information dissemination, and the…

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In this episode of the St Emlyn’s Podcast, Iain and Simon reflect on IncrEMentuM 2025, skills fade in rare procedures, arterial line placement, and emerging evidence in cardiac arrest and resuscitative hysterotomy. Essential listening for emergency clinicians.

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RCEM 2025 Day 3 explored mental health, autism, palliative care, high-intensity users, and modern transfusion and diabetes management in the ED.

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Life 2.0 - What the dead can teach us about living - Matt Morgan at TBS 2025

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been scared of dying. Not in that vague, philosophical “we all go someday” way—but properly terrified. Heart racing. Stomach flipping. The sort of fear that sneaks up on you in traffic jams or while brushing your teeth. Which, given I spend most of my working life in an ED surrounded by people very much trying to die, feels… problematic. You’d think constant…

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From pragmatic frailty care to neurodiversity in medicine and creating safer cultures, Day 2 of RCEM 2025 blended sharp clinical insights with systems thinking. Syncope, cardiology, culture, paeds, neurodiversity and more

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Day 1 at RCEM Conference 2025 tackled identity, innovation, wellbeing, and risk in Emergency Medicine. Key insights from Joey Godfrey on St Emlyn’s.

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Podcast - Excellence in Debriefing with Richard Lyon at LTC

Listening time: 21.04 Synopsis Iain Beardsell and Natalie May from St Emlyn’s Podcast are joined by Richard Lyon, an emergency doctor and deputy medical director of an air ambulance service. Recorded at the London Trauma Conference 2024, Richard shares insights from his powerful presentation on the importance of detailed case learning and debriefing both in hospital and pre-hospital settings.…