Patients may report an allergy to a medication, which on further investigation transpires to be a reported side-effect, this may explain some of the differences in allergy report- ing. Good practice would suggest that in those circum- stances the allergies reported by a patient should be acknowledged along with a comment justifying their exclu- sion from an allergy list.
The written records were chosen since they were easily accessible for a retrospective study. Although verbal hand- over plays a role in the information transfer from ambu- lance crews to ED staff, the only permanent record of events, and therefore that which is consulted when review- ing a case, or providing evidence in a Law Court, is the writ- ten notes.