To the Editor: Much has been written to describe the best clinical protocols to improve patient outcome following a medical emergency in hospital.1-4 However, one simple step in the process has not been clearly articulated: what is the hospital internal emergency number to ring to summon the medical emergency or “code blue” team?

Each hospital in Australia sets its own emergency phone number. Examples include 333, 444, 555, 666, 777 and 2333 — there are probably others. For the highly mobile workforce in our hospitals, it is often difficult to recall which number to ring when challenged by the immediacy of a situation.

All hospitals should upgrade their phone systems to have a single standard phone number for internal emergencies. This solution has been successfully applied in the broader community. In the Australian community an emergency call is 000, in the United States it is 911, and in the United Kingdom it is 999. It ought to be possible for all Australian hospitals to use a standard emergency telephone number to initiate an internal emergency response. I have only been able to find one health service internationally that has attempted this solution — the UK National Health Service advises trusts to use the number 2222.5

Technical advice on what number would be most suitable in Australia would be required. Telecommunications experts should advise on the technical aspects, cost and a reasonable time frame for all hospitals. State and federal health services would need to direct all hospitals to move to the new number, either as able or by a date to be determined.

I hope to raise the debate on what appears, at a superficial level, to be a very simple initiative that could save lives, or at least remove one more cause of error and delay in the internal emergency response of each hospital.5 I have written to various authorities asking that this concept be explored. Those that have responded agree in principle, but have not taken responsibility for its progression. If this is a good idea, who should or could take control of it? It would be helpful to find an authority to back this proposal. This is a call for help.