[1] The service operates from a bespoke base near Glasgow and expects to be able to cater for 2,200 critically ill children and adults every year.
In November 2011, a strategic review project board looked at Scotland's patient transport arrangements and recommended harmonisation of the existing specialist services.
Located at the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health in Edinburgh, the Southeast team is responsible for serving South Tayside, Lothians, Fife, and the Borders.
The EMRS now operates as part of ScotSTAR, the Scottish national retrieval service, sharing a bespoke base at Glasgow Airport.
There are 47 part-time consultants who work with EMRS[15] and a smaller number of registrar or clinical fellow grade doctors.
[16] During staffing pressures in the early COVID-19 pandemic, the service occasionally deployed a Registrar with a Retrieval Practitioner as an operational team.