Emergency Medicine (EM) is a medical speciality that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of urgent illnesses and injuries. What makes this discipline unique is the reversal of the usual medical consultation – emergency clinicians often start life-saving treatment before they get the full history and examination. Interventions that happen in the critical minutes of patient care in a medical emergency have the potential to change the course of a patient’s life, with the efficient practice of EM ensuring a seamless transition of care from the scene of an accident or medical emergency to the ICU bed.  

Primary emergency care for health care providers is the first complete South African textbook on the field to become available since the introduction of EM as a medical speciality and the professionalisation of EM in South Africa. The book covers a wide range of topics in EM, starting off with the classical A-B-C approach of chapters on airway, breathing and circulation. From there, the authors delve into the nuances of cardiovascular emergencies, neurological conditions, toxicology, point-of-care ultrasound, paediatric emergency medicine, electrolyte derangements, venomous snake bites and disaster medicine.