Paramedics May No Longer Joke About Ground-Bound Docs

England's Sussex Air Ambulance is adding to its life-saving repertoire. The company has recruited three physicians to join the paramedic crews on the helicopters who fly to emergency medical scenes to render crucial early medical intervention to the critically ill or injured.

When the positions were posted, the service was inundated with applications from physicians around the world.

South African Colin Mitchell was embarking on a trip around the world when he saw the job posting. He will postpone his trip for a year to take the job.

The second physician chosen was Dr. Rosie Furse, a former specialist registrar in emergency medicine at Oxford. She regularly tours with the British Motorcycle Racing Team and is an extrication doctor for the F1 team at Silverstone, according to The Argus newspaper.

Rounding out the new team is Richard Forbes from Perth, Australia. An accident and emergency consultant, he was also a team physician for Rally Australia and the Australian V8 Supercar Championship.

"I had always wanted to live in the UK and my training for this role is ideal, so I applied," he said. "It is very similar to accident and emergency work. It's a very uncontrolled environment and the skills and knowledge needed are the same."

There has been research conducted in the UK on physicians in the pre-hospital setting. In 15 percent of the cases studied this early availability of a doctor made a critical difference in a patient's recovery.

"We believe the unique combination of skills possessed by paramedics and doctors benefits the patient and enables us to save more lives," said David Philpott, chief executive of Sussex Air Ambulance and chairman of the Association of Air Ambulance Charities. "Across the UK more air ambulances are following this model and we believe that it will make a real difference to patient care."

"Having the paramedics on board is important because it's their home ground, and they have skills and expertise that we don't have. We really complement each other's work," Forbes added.

The service flies MD 902 Explorers, and is completely funded by voluntary donations.

FMI: www.sussexairambulance.co.uk/index.aspx