Local emergency medical charity given a life-saving start to the New Year

Two volunteer doctors secured by Bravo Medics to deliver life-saving treatment and support an overstretched NHS

Bravo Medics today announced it has recruited two new volunteer critical care doctors to assist their two current responders. This milestone is a major move for Bravo Medics who only launched in 2020 but will now be able to respond to medical emergencies in the community every day of the week.

Pre-hospital critical care is not funded by the NHS. Bravo Medics steps in when somebody is critically ill, and other services cannot help, by dispatching their highly trained critical care doctors to the very sickest of patients across Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. They also respond in Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire and Wales when their specialist skills are required.

In 2021, with just two doctors, Bravo Medics experienced a 12% increase in callouts. In light of stretched NHS resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic this news is particularly welcome as they will be able to further support the stretched NHS.

Andrew Heavyside, Chair and Responder at Bravo Medics says “Setting up a medical response charity during the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard work, but it is hugely rewarding to help our local community in this way. Our two new volunteer critical care doctors will significantly boost our availability and ensure that, day and night, those with the most life threatening conditions get the treatment they need and get them to hospital safely.”

Andrew and the Bravo Medics doctors all work full time for the NHS - they volunteer for the charity in their own family time. They are on call to drive on blue lights to the scene of accidents or medical emergencies at any time, where they provide hospital level care that would otherwise be unavailable. Bravo Medics really can mean the difference between life and death.

Since they launched this small but mighty charity has accomplished so much, including:

• Responding to nearly 100 medical emergencies in 2021
• Performing more than 20 pre hospital emergency anaesthetics (helping get the most critically unwell patients to hospital safely when otherwise they would likely have died)
• Treating more than 20 children

The doctors attend around eight critically ill patients a month, but with the support of the local community and their two new responders, they will attend more incidents and save more lives.