In case of emergencies please ring 999/112
MICAS
The philosophy of care in MICAS is to provide the highest quality care to critically ill patients whilst transporting them to a facility that meets their medical needs by an appropriately qualified and skilled team of critical care staff. It ensures every patient is transported in a way that maximises, not only their medical care, but the safety, dignity and comfort of the patient and their families.
The MICAS service is delivered Nationally by 3 hubs: MICAS East (Dublin), MICAS South (Cork), MICAS West (Galway).
MICAS Referral 1800 222378
Referrals to MICAS are coordinated through the Critical Care and Retrieval Desk at the National Ambulance Service (NAS), National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) in Tallaght.
The Critical Care and Retrieval Desk can be contacted at 1800 222 378 (or 1800 ACCEPT), 08.00h – 20.00h, Monday – Sunday.
Usually, an ICU bed must be secured in the receiving hospital prior to activation of the MICAS Team. Exceptions to this include mandatory transfers from smaller hospitals without critical care facilities, or patients who are being transferred directly to theatre or interventional radiology.
Once a call is received, the NEOC dispatcher will take some basic details from you and connect you to the MICAS coordinator for the day. The MICAS coordinator will conference in the referring consultant, the consultant on call for MICAS, the receiving consultant and additional specialists if required.
The referring/receiving consultants will then decide if the transfer is time critical i.e. the patient is too unstable to wait for the MICAS team, or can be undertaken by the retrieval service.
The decision to retrieve any patient remains with the MICAS consultant on call.