Emergency tracheostomy in general practice

We set out to review the need for general practitioners (GPs) to be skilled at forming an emergency alternative airway by assessing mortality figures for acute airways obstruction. We also solicited the views of 100 GPs on the theory and practice of emergency tracheostomy and assessed whether they considered they were equipped to carry out such a procedure in the community. The results suggest a significant number of deaths of otherwise young and healthy individuals could be avoided by training community practitioners in emergency alternative airway formation. The results showed a marked lack of confidence in the practice of emergency airway formation and few GPs felt able to carry out the procedure. They indicated an overwhelming interest in receiving further education on the subject. We recommend that formal training programmes in the techniques of emergency airway formation should be available for community GPs.