Referring to our centre
Bristol is one of six centrally-funded ECMO centres in England.
For referrers
All ECMO referrals continue to go through the national referral website.
Your referral will be handled by a Bristol ECMO consultant, who will mobilise a retrieval team if the candidate is suitable for ECMO. Typical patients suitable for ECMO include those with reversible disease associated with severe hypoxaemia (e.g. PaO2/FiO2 < 13.3kPa) or severe hypercapnic acidosis (e.g. pH < 7.20) despite conventional support.
If your referral is time critical or you have difficulty submitting an online referral for any reason, please call the Retrieve Adult Critical Care Service on 0300 030 2222. Please clearly tell the operator your hospital location and state that you are making an ECMO referral, and they will connect you to the duty Bristol ECMO coordinator.
We welcome discussions about any patient with potentially reversible severe acute respiratory failure, particularly those in whom adequate arterial blood gases cannot be achieved using lung protective tidal volumes and pressures.
We encourage early referral and provide tailored solutions according to the requirements of the patient and referring centre. The potential benefits of ECMO as a lung protective strategy diminish after about one week of conventional ventilation at high pressure and high-inspired oxygen.
Please download the supporting documents from the UHBW website below:
