1 week Ago
At Welwyn Garden City ambulance station, I met a group of volunteer critical care paramedics and doctors who are part of the Beds & Herts Emergency Critical Care Scheme (BHECCS). BHECCS is a charity, working to support NHS paramedics race to the top one per cent most severe emergencies. These are the road accidents, sudden heart attacks and traumatic injuries where every minute can make the difference between life and death.
NHS ambulances will always prioritise responding to these calls, so the role of the BHECCS team of senior doctors and paramedics is to provide additional and complementary expert support. I met a doctor who works in Luton hospital as an anaesthetic consultant in the day. At night he is ‘on call’ with the BHECCS team, ready to jump out of bed to provide expert care to a patient whose life hangs in the balance.
I met a serving police officer and a veterinary student who are doing the same. They are all giving their free time to public service, above and beyond the busy and demanding jobs they do. Led by a senior doctor, BHECCS teams care can bridge the gap between the treatment provided by paramedics and hospital care.
They are trained to ventilate a patient through a hole in their neck and conduct a thoracostomy, a surgical procedure on a patient’s chest to reinflate a collapsed lung. In some cases, the BHECCS team arrive on site before the paramedics. It is their interventions in the first few minutes that can significantly raise the chances of survival and they often join the paramedics in an ambulance, to help provide onward care on the journey to hospital.
I left our meeting reflecting on how lucky we are to have such highly skilled group of people giving their time to come to the aid of those in needs. In a world where the news can tend to pessimism, I came away more optimistic than ever about our community and our public servants. If you are interested in learning more about BHECCS and how you could donate or volunteer your time with the scheme, visit: https://bheccs.
org.uk/..
