Flying doctor will be a boost

A Flying Doctor among the crew of the Shropshire-based air ambulance will make available a whole new range of on-the-spot treatments and procedures at the scene of emergencies, says air ambulance operations manager Ian Clayton.

Mr Clayton says the service’s paramedics are already working to the very boundary of what they are legally allowed to do.

“They have as much of a free hand as any paramedics in the country, but a doctor is going to bring this extra standard of patient care that the paramedics are not legally allowed to do at the moment,” he said.

And he listed the sort of things that a flying doctor can do that paramedics are not permitted to do.

“They can sedate people, and anaesthetise people, and perform surgical interventions.

“They can do a tracheotomy - if a patient can’t breathe, they can open up the neck and put in a tube.

“They can put in chest drains and do emergency surgery at the roadside. In extreme cases this could be amputations, or opening up the chest of somebody who had stab wounds - things like that.

“Then there is wound care and haemorrhage control. If somebody has a big arterial bleed, they can open up the wound to find where the bleeding is coming from and apply clamps.

“They can give a wider range of drugs than paramedics can.”

The addition of a flying doctor will of course alter the composition of the crew of the RAF Cosford-based helicopter.

Currently it flies with two paramedics and one pilot. This would change to a flying doctor, a paramedic and a pilot.

Normally the helicopter takes one casualty, but it can be configured to take two.

In terms of qualifications and experience, the flying doctor will have appropriate and adequate experience in pre-hospital medicine, at registrar level or above.

Picture: The two full-time paramedics on the air ambulance based at Cosford are Tim Jones and Becky Tinsley. 

By Toby Neal

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