Kevin Mackway-Jones & Janet Marsden 
Emergency Triage 
Manchester Triage Group (Version 3.8, 2023)

The Manchester Triage System (MTS) is the most widely used triage system in the UK, Europe and Australia, with tens of millions of patients being processed through hospital emergency departments. It is also used in hospitals throughout Brazil.

Emergency Triage is the core text for the MTS, which utilises a risk averse system of prioritisation for patients in all unscheduled care settings. As such, it is an essential text for all emergency department staff using the MTS, in particular triage nurses. The book is both a training tool and a reference for daily use in the Emergency Department and prehospital settings.

This edition features revised protocols that reflect new approaches to prioritisation, with accompanying revised flowcharts – the core part of the book.

Table of Contents

Presentation flow charts index

1: Introduction

2: The decision-making process and triage

3: The triage method

4: Pain assessment as part of the triage process

5: Patient management, triage and the triage nurse

6: Auditing the triage process

7: Telephone triage

8: Beyond prioritisation to other applications

This Edition was updated in 2023 to Version 3.8.

Table of Content

Editors vi

Members of the original Manchester Triage Group vii

International Reference Group viii

Preface to the third edition ix

Preface to the first edition xi

1 Introduction 1

2 The decision-making process and triage 6

3 The triage method 11

4 Pain assessment as part of the triage process 25

5 Patient management, triage and the triage practitioner 35

6 Auditing the triage process 42

7 Telephone triage 47

8 Beyond prioritisation 54

Presentational flow chart index 62

Presentational flow charts 64

Discriminator dictionary 174

Index 185

General discriminators 190

About the author

Kevin Mackway-Jones, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK.

Janet Marsden, Professor of Ophthalmology and Emergency Care, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK.

Jill Windle, Lecturer Practitioner in Emergency Nursing, Salford Royal Hospital, Salford, UK.