Pre-Hospital Emergency Care / BASICS and Event Medical Cover

We provide emergency medical assistance to the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and the Tees, East & North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (TENYAS).

The British Association of Immediate Care (BASICS) is a national group that promotes high quality pre-hospital care by setting standards, providing training courses, organising accreditation as well as encouraging research. The BASICS web-site explains in detail what Immediate Care is all about.

Immediate Care was pioneered in the North East, by the late Dr Ken Easton of Catterick. His vision & hard work provided the foundations for our current activities.

Whilst we cannot prevent you having an accident or being taken seriously ill, we can greatly increase your chance of survival & promote your rapid recovery!

We are pleased to support The Great North Air Ambulance and occasionally help crew the Teesside operation.

Medical Cover for Events

We are able to provide appropriately trained, equipped and experienced doctors, nurses and ambulance staff to advise and cover events. In the past we have covered large music events such as Elton John concerts and the Newark Americana. We also cover many sporting events ranging from football clubs to horse events and motor sport.

Event organizers are increasingly aware of their onerous responsibilities in ensuring appropriate medical cover is provided for their event. We can ease that burden for you!

What do we do? [TOP]

Immediate Care is the provision of skilled medical help at the scene of an accident, medical emergency or during transport to hospital. It consists of the recognition, resuscitation and stabilisation of the seriously ill or injured in the pre-hospital environment. It extends beyond the preservation of life to the prevention of complications & the relief of suffering.

In most cases of injury or sudden severe illness, the expertise of the Ambulance crews will ensure you survive the journey to hospital. In many cases, their treatment at the scene and during the journey to hospital will speed your eventual recovery.

However, there are situations where the presence of a specially trained & equipped doctor at the incident is needed to ensure you have the best possible chance of survival & rapid recovery.

In the UK, there is no statutory duty to provide such a doctor! The good news is that most parts of the UK are covered by such doctors working voluntarily with the local Ambulance Services. In turn, the doctors are usually supported by their local communities who raise funds for their training & equipment.

BASICS doctors are increasingly helping their local communities by working as First Responders. Ambulance Control will activate the nearest First Responder who will treat the patient(s) whilst waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

BASICS doctors are skilled at:

Airway and ventilation management
Airway & breathing problems remain a common cause of preventable pre-hospital deaths. We are trained & equipped to recognise & deal with these problems, including the use of sedation and anaesthetic agents.
Advanced cardiac life support including pacing
Rapid defibrillation (electric shock to the heart) saves lives. Pacing can keep a reluctant heart beating during the journey to hospital.
Drug & intravenous fluid therapy
We have an extensive range of drugs that can assist the on-scene management of a patient.
Multiple casualty assessment & scene management.
We are trained as Medical Incident Officers & are able to manage the scene of a multiple casualty incident, working closely with all three of the statutory emergency services.

As well as responding to emergencies, we also help with the planning & provision of medical cover for events such as music festivals, football matches, horse events etc. We work alongside other Voluntary Agencies including St Johns, The Red Cross & County Durham Emergency Volunteers.

Training [TOP]

Providing pre-hospital care is very rewarding, but demanding. All links in the chain have to work well for our service to be effective. As well as being trained in the unique speciality of pre-hospital care, all doctors working for BASICS North East are trained in radio communications and response driving.

Minimum Standards

Basic Trauma Life Support Course provided by TENYAS.
Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Course of The Royal College of Surgeons

Ideal Standards

Immediate Care Course provided by BASICS Education
Doctors are then encouraged to study for the Diploma in Immediate Medical Care (DIMC) of the Royal College of Surgeons, which is a registerable post-graduate qualification.
The Fellowship in Immediate Care is a new award from the Royal College of Surgeons, requiring the completion of a dissertation.

These courses equip us with the skills that help to make a difference to outcome from major injury or serious illness. We also attend many other courses including scene safety, paediatric and major incident management courses.

Locally, we participate in Major Incident exercises such as those held at Newcastle & Teesside Airports. The pictures below show an exercise in progress using a training jig that simulates an aircraft crash with 200 casualties.

We also join up with the Fire & Rescue Service to learn from each other, how best to extricate casualties from wreckage.

Cleveland Traffic Police provide a 5 day Response Driving Course which aims to teach us how to arrive rapidly and above all, safely at incidents.

Two members of BASICS North East now teach for BASICS Education on their national courses.