Emergency Bleep Replacement
Flexible, audited emergency paging that reaches your clinicians wherever they are – built into the platform they already use.
CAREFUL is a communication platform for clinical teams. Its emergency calls replace the radio-pager emergency bleep with flexible, audited emergency paging: critical alerts that reach on-duty responders on the phones they already carry, raised by any clinician or by switchboard.
Emergency calls build on the everyday clinical communication CAREFUL already carries – handovers, patient moves and tasks. For routine, non-emergency bleeps, see Bleep & pager replacement.
Read the transcript
Every clinician loves to hate their bleep. The radio pager is more than 50 years old and the technology is ageing. Radio pagers depend on dedicated hardware and are geographically limited. Changing who gets called is slow and costly. They can't use the phones your staff already carry, and they leave little record of who was paged, by whom, or when.
In an emergency, calls can be delayed. Dial 2222, wait for switchboard, then wait for the bleeps to go out. Each step costs time, just when time matters most.
CAREFUL already carries your team's everyday clinical communication and push notifications for handovers, patient moves, and tasks. The emergency calls function now builds on that: flexible, audited emergency paging that reaches your clinicians wherever they are. Alerts go out as critical notifications to iOS and Android devices and appear on screen for anyone signed in on the web. Any CAREFUL user can raise the alarm directly while the old route still works. Switchboard can still do it for them.
Your organisation decides what counts as an emergency. Administrators decide which teams are required to respond to emergencies. They then build a list of emergency types, choosing which teams respond to which type of emergency. Here we see Michael adding a new major incident type, which includes all the emergency response teams.
When calls go out, they are sent only to on-duty team members, so nobody is alerted while off shift. Administrators and team owners can also exclude team members who are not needed in a response. For instance, Michael can turn off critical alerts for a paediatric consultant who will not be required.
Switchboard staff and administrators can run calls from the emergencies console, just as they do today. Choose the emergency, choose the place, send. But with CAREFUL, anyone can make the call, and every call is audited.
Dr Bello has a deteriorating patient in the resuscitation room. She presses emergency, chooses adult peri-arrest, and picks bed three from the hospital's own location list. She could type any other location if it wasn't listed. One press and CAREFUL confirms exactly who has been called. She can still ring 2222 if she prefers.
On the medical registrar's phone, it arrives as a critical alert that sounds even when set to silent or Do Not Disturb. If she's at a computer with CAREFUL open, it takes over that screen too: what the emergency is, where, and who called. It even gives the contact number of the person making the call.
But we should remember, not every call is a crash call. From a team's page, staff can fast call that team's on-duty members. A junior doctor can get senior help quickly without putting out a hospital-wide alert. And finally, switchboard and administrators can also fast call individuals. Search by name, role, or specialty, and bring the on-duty orthopaedic registrar straight to the bedside. Anyone off duty is shown but can't be called.
Every call is recorded: who called, who was alerted, what kind of call, where and when. Filter by date or type, open any call for the full detail and see exactly how the service is being used.
Whether it's a hospital-wide emergency or a quick request for help, CAREFUL gives your clinicians a modern, flexible and fully audited way to summon help, built into the platform they already use.
Transcript edited from automatic captions.
The problem
Every clinician loves to hate their bleep. The radio pager is more than 50 years old and the technology is ageing. Pagers depend on dedicated hardware and are geographically limited. Changing who gets called is slow and costly. They can't use the phones staff already carry, and they leave little record of who was paged, by whom, or when.
In an emergency, every step costs time. Dial 2222, wait for switchboard, then wait for the bleeps to go out – just when time matters most.
How emergency calls work
Any CAREFUL user can raise the alarm directly. A clinician with a deteriorating patient presses Emergency, chooses the type of emergency – adult peri-arrest, for example – and picks the location from the hospital's own location list, or types it in if it isn't listed. One press sends the call, and CAREFUL confirms exactly who has been called.
On responders' phones, the call arrives as a critical alert on iOS and Android that sounds even when the phone is set to silent or Do Not Disturb, once the user has allowed critical alerts for CAREFUL. Anyone signed in on the web sees the alert take over their screen. The alert shows what the emergency is, where it is and who called – including the caller's contact number.
Your organisation decides what counts as an emergency
Administrators decide which teams are required to respond to emergencies, then build a list of emergency types and choose which teams respond to each – a major incident type might include every emergency response team. Calls go only to on-duty team members, so nobody is alerted while off shift. Administrators and team owners can also exclude team members who are not needed in a response, such as a paediatric consultant for adult calls.
Switchboard stays in the loop
The existing route still works. Clinicians can ring 2222 if they prefer, and switchboard staff and administrators can run calls from the CAREFUL emergencies console just as they do today: choose the emergency, choose the place, send. The difference is that anyone can now make the call, and every call is audited.
Not every call is a crash call
From a team's page, staff can fast call that team's on-duty members – so a junior doctor can get senior help quickly without putting out a hospital-wide alert. Switchboard and administrators can also fast call individuals: search by name, role or specialty, and bring the on-duty orthopaedic registrar straight to the bedside. Anyone off duty is shown but can't be called.
Every call is audited
Every call is recorded: who called, who was alerted, what kind of call, where and when. Filter by date or type, open any call for the full detail, and see exactly how the service is being used.
Compliance
CAREFUL is NHS-compliant: Cyber Essentials Plus, DSPT registered, DCB0129 compliant, Azure hosting in appropriate zones for data sovereignty. No patient data on personal devices. Full audit trail.
Security & Compliance → · DTAC compliance →
Frequently asked questions
Can CAREFUL replace crash bleeps?
Yes. CAREFUL's emergency calls send critical alerts for crash calls, peri-arrest, major incidents and any other emergency types your organisation defines, to the on-duty members of the teams that respond. The 2222 switchboard route continues to work alongside, and switchboard can raise calls from the CAREFUL emergencies console.
Will an emergency alert get through if a phone is on silent?
Yes. The system uses the industry-standard Critical Notifications functionality, restricted to healthcare, government and similar apps. Once the user has allowed critical alerts for the CAREFUL app, emergency calls arrive as critical alerts that sound even when the phone is set to silent or Do Not Disturb. Anyone signed in to CAREFUL on the web sees the alert take over their screen.
Who receives an emergency call?
Only the on-duty members of the teams assigned to that emergency type. Administrators decide which teams respond to which type of emergency, and administrators and team owners can exclude team members who are not needed – a paediatric consultant from adult calls, for example. Nobody is alerted while off shift.
Can switchboard still put out emergency calls?
Yes. Switchboard staff and administrators run calls from the emergencies console, just as they do today: choose the emergency, choose the place, send. Clinicians can still ring 2222 if they prefer – and any CAREFUL user can now raise the call directly.
Is every emergency call recorded?
Yes. Every call records who called, who was alerted, what kind of call it was, where and when. Calls can be filtered by date or type, and each one opens to show the full detail – so you can see exactly how the service is being used.