By Rob Pattinson
The Journal
NEWCASTLE, England — An accident and emergency unit by the roadside that’s how Great North Air Ambulance (GNAAS) medical director Dr Dave Bramley sees the service he is proud to work for.
And he should know. By day, the 35-year-old is a consultant in emergency medicine at Sunderland Royal Hospital.
The medic, who started doing ad-hoc shifts with the GNAAS in 2003, before becoming a regular member of the crew in 2006, says the reason he believes in the charity so much is simple: “It saves lives. We’re still in touch with patients who had such severe injuries you wouldn’t normally have expected them to reach hospital alive.
“But, equally, by rushing to a patient’s side we are able to deliver pain-relieving medication and care that patients would often have to wait much longer for.”
As medical director, Dave now oversees all of the care provided by the GNAAS helicopters and cars an operation which covers Tyneside, Northumberland, County Durham, and Wearside. His brief, from charity chief executive Grahame Pickering, is to deliver the same quality of care at the roadside, in a field, or on the side of a mountain, as a patient would receive in hospital.
Dave said: “That’s what we aim for wherever possible. Obviously, we can’t replicate exactly what’s done in hospital because they have more resources to call on. But we can administer anaesthetics by the roadside, we can offer higher doses of medication and pain relief.”
According to Dave, the crucial difference the air ambulance makes to emergency treatment is that it can take doctors, as well as paramedics.
Dave believes working on the air ambulance offers some of the best opportunities available to improve as a medical professional. “The main development you benefit from is the volume of serious incidents you deal with,” he said. “That is largely what the air ambulance is there for.
“Thankfully, major trauma is not that common, so in an ordinary accident and emergency unit you don’t get to see that many cases.
“Because the air ambulance serves a much larger area it means you are called out to serious injuries more often, which means I’ve been able to develop my skills.”
As a father of three, Dave says he has experienced a number of occasions working for the charity when he has been grateful the helicopter has been available to transfer an injured child. He said: “We treat all age ranges, from babies right through to adults.
“There have been times when I’ve been treating an infant in the helicopter and thought that it’s incredibly fortunate we were able to get to them. Cases involving children are obviously incredibly difficult, but that’s why we do this, to help them.”
Dave says despite the horrific scenes he has had to attend, he takes a lot away from the work he performs on board the charity’s helicopters.
And, of course, there’s the bonus of a front-row seat for the best views of the region you can get.
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