The Clinical Service
Remote diagnosis and treatment. Our physicians review vital signs, ECGs, blood results, clinical images, and the medic’s clinical assessment to provide a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan. The medic follows the plan under physician supervision, with continuous support throughout the episode of care.
Medication authorisation. Immediate authority to administer Controlled Drugs and Prescription-Only Medicines for pain management, infection, cardiac events, and acute conditions. Without Topside authorisation, the medic’s formulary is limited to over-the-counter medications and a narrow range of Patient Group Directions. Our authorisation extends the onsite treatment capability significantly.
Patient stabilisation. Step-by-step clinical guidance for managing trauma, cardiac arrest, respiratory distress, or any acute presentation that exceeds the medic’s independent scope of practice. The physician stays on the line throughout, adjusting the management plan as the clinical picture evolves.
Chronic condition management. Not every call is an emergency. Medics also contact Topside for guidance on ongoing health conditions, medication adjustments, and fitness-for-duty decisions for crew members with known medical histories. These routine consultations are clinically important, they prevent conditions from deteriorating to the point where evacuation becomes necessary.
Medevac Management
The decision to evacuate is one of the most consequential calls made offshore. Unnecessary evacuations expose patients to helicopter transport risks, cost operators tens of thousands per flight, and disrupt operations. Delayed evacuations put lives at risk.
Our physicians take clinical responsibility for that decision, assessing what the patient needs against what can be delivered onsite. If the patient can be safely treated on the installation with Topside support, they stay. If they need a hospital, we initiate the evacuation and manage the clinical handover. The decision is driven entirely by the patient’s medical needs. Not by commercial pressure, operational convenience, or risk aversion.
The reduction in unnecessary medevacs is one of the most tangible commercial benefits of our Topside service. Operators who use our service consistently report a significant decrease in evacuation rates without any compromise in patient safety.
Clinical Independence
Our Topside Physicians are GMC registered and operate with complete clinical independence. Their advice is driven entirely by the patient’s medical needs. They are not employed by the operator, they are not influenced by production targets, and they are not pressured to minimise disruption. If a patient needs evacuation, the physician calls for evacuation regardless of the operational impact. That independence is fundamental to the clinical integrity of the service and to the safety of the patient.
Technology and Connectivity
Our telemedicine platform enables real-time transmission of diagnostic data between the offshore medic and the onshore physician. ECGs are transmitted in diagnostic quality. Clinical photographs and video can be shared in real time. Vital sign monitoring data feeds directly to the physician’s screen. This is not a telephone consultation supplemented by a verbal description. It is a data-rich clinical interaction that enables diagnosis at a level close to what would be possible in a hospital emergency department.
For installations with limited bandwidth, our systems are designed to function effectively over satellite connections, compressing data without losing clinical utility.
Service Level and Response Times
When a medic calls Topside, they need an immediate response. Our service level guarantees a clinician on the line within minutes, not an answering machine followed by a callback. The nature of offshore medical emergencies means that delays in physician support can directly affect patient outcomes.
All calls are logged with a timestamp, and response times are auditable. For contracted clients, we report response performance monthly alongside clinical activity data, medevac rates, and trend analysis. This transparency demonstrates the service’s value and provides the governance documentation your regulator expects.
What This Means for Your Business
The financial return on topside medical support is built around medevac prevention. A single avoided helicopter evacuation saves £30,000 to £80,000 in direct costs. Operators using our service consistently report a significant reduction in evacuation rates. The annual cost of the topside service is typically recovered within the first few prevented evacuations.
