"The aim of MEDS is to send doctors with pre-hospital care skills, to assist the ambulance service, by providing additional skilled medical help at the scene of an accident, medical emergency or during transport to hospital. It aims to provide help within Montgomeryshire and the border areas.

We carry pagers 24hrs a day and can be tasked immediately by the ambulance service control room. The majority of the work tends to be attending road traffic accidents but we are also sent to other emergencies such as cardiac arrest, prolonged fitting, severe asthma, suicide attempts, etc. Sometimes we are sent as first responders. We both drive a dedicated vehicle which is fully marked with reflective markings and the cars have both visual and audible warning systems. The cars are equipped with radios linked directly to the control room. They carry equipment similar to that used by paramedics, eg, defibrillators, intravenous fluids and oxygen but also additional equipment not carried by an ambulance, such as specialist monitoring equipment, surgical airways, chest drains, etc.

The ambulance staff are fully trained in resuscitation skills but seriously injured and trapped patients benefit tremendously from the combined skills of ambulance personnel and doctors working as a team. On occasions we will go with the patient in the ambulance to the local hospital to continue treatment en-route.

At present there are only 2 doctors involved in MEDs but hopefully the scheme will develop to involve other doctors. Both of us have undergone specialist training in immediate care and both hold advanced exams in this field. MEDs is affiliated to BASICS (British Association for Immediate Care) which is a national charity that has a number of different schemes throughout the UK, like MEDs, as part of its organisation. www.basics.org.uk

Together, we attend approximately 100 incidents per year which means that on average, a doctor is out every 3-4 days. MEDs is totally voluntary and relies completely on donations given to the charity to allow the scheme to function. The scheme requires money for the purchase and maintenance of equipment and training requirements. It can cost up to £20,000 to fully equip and train an Immediate Care Doctor.

Article written by Ian Russell