Saving lives when others cannot

The Pitch

Problem statement

Pre-hospital critical care is not available through the NHS. Our local air ambulance charity - which does provide critical care – does not operate 24 hours a day. So what happens if somebody is seriously ill in Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and South Wales when other services are not able to help? Bravo Medics steps in. The South Western Ambulance Service has declared a critical incident. Ambulance wait times are the highest on record and continue to rise.Everyone we respond to is at imminent risk of death. Ambulances transport patients to the hospital, but in the most severe cases such as a cardiac arrest, waiting is too late.

Solution

£3000 could fund the costs of 14 emergency responses this year. Our five volunteers work full time for the NHS as Critical Care Consultants and are on call to drive on blue lights in their spare time, unpaid. Last year we saw a 75% increase in call-outs. The current social and economical climates are having a severe effect; we are seeing an increase in violent attacks, stabbings, shootings and suicides amounting to more than one in every 10 responses. The Ambulance Service dispatches our Consultants via mobile phone, when somebody is at imminent risk of death or will not survive the journey to hospital.

Why are we best placed to deliver?

We are a registered charity governed by a board of Trustees. We are accredited by the British Association for Immediate Care. We are independent of the NHS and statutory services and fill a community support gap. Other similar services are delivered by GPs or doctors, rather than consultants so we provide the highest level of care often supporting other services. As a result of our work, we were awarded the Bath and North East Somerset Council’s Volunteer Team of the Year Award in November 2022. 90% of people we treat survive to hospital. Around one in four would die or suffer life-changing injuries without us.

Focus Areas

Delivery plan

Budget breakdown

Beneficiaries

200 people

Who will benefit

Expected impact

We have just started to carry freeze-dried blood products for blood transfusions. We are the first voluntary BASICS scheme in the country to do so. We also provide surgery, anaesthesia, sedation, advanced pain relief and medicines only available in hospital. Our responders accompany patients to hospital to ensure effective treatment and a smooth handover. At times when it is sadly evident a patient will not survive, the responder would advise paramedics to stop treatment and reassure families that their loved one received the same care they would have in hospital. More than one in every three call outs are to people in cardiac arrest, of which more than half are people aged under 50 (31% babies and children). More than 30,000 cardiac arrests occur in our communities every year in the UK but only 1 in 10 people survive. More than one in three people we treat in cardiac arrest survive to hospital.

Track record

Ambulance control woke our volunteer responder in the early hours one morning. A lady had found her partner, a man in his 20s, not breathing. When the paramedics had arrived, they realised his heart wasn't beating. Our Responder used a grant-funded LUCAS mechanical chest compressor to deliver more-effective CPR. We also passed a tube into the patient's windpipe, aided by a video laryngoscope. This allowed oxygen to pass into the man's lungs. The patient's heart then started to beat weakly. Our Responder used strong medications to support the beating. He accompanied him to hospital in the ambulance, closely monitored him and gave anaesthetic medications to protect his brain. After a long hospital stay, the man returned home to his normal life.