Citation Laerdal Award 2005 - Mr Keith MacDonald Porter

Keith Porter trained at St Thomas’s Hospital and qualified in medicine in 1974. Five years later he received his Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons, London, whilst on surgical rotation in the Midlands and now holds the post of Consultant in Trauma and Orthopaedic surgery at the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust.

Keith also holds the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Fellowship in Immediate Medical Care, Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh. He is Orthopaedic surgeon to the County Cricket Club and the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Keith is the Medical Director of the West Midlands CARE (Central Accident Resuscitation Emergency) Team which is an organisation which provides skilled medical and nursing help on a regular basis to patients in the West Midlands region in conjunction with the West Midlands Ambulance Service. He is a BASICS doctor and an active member of the Bromsgrove and Redditch Flying Doctor Service with a one in four commitment on-call to Hereford and Worcester and West Midland Ambulance Services.

He is involved in pre-hospital care and is the medical officer to the British Oval Racing Safety Executive and sit on the Steering Group Committee for paramedic training in the West Midlands Region. Keith is the Medical Adviser for the West Midlands Air Ambulance and is responsible for audit and protocols.

Keith works tirelessly in the field of pre-hospital care. I was personally delighted when Keith became my Vice Chairman of BASICS, together with Richard Steyn. Keith is the Honorary Secretary of the Faculty of Pre Hospital Care, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh and is an examiner for both the Diploma and Fellowship in Immediate Medical Care. He is a founder member and Chairman of Trauma (UK) and a member of the JCALC subcommittee for trauma.

As if this was not enough, Keith is the Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon to “Bright Eyes”, a registered charity involved in treating childhood victims of war, and a member of the teaching faculty and advisor for the “Special Forces Trauma Course”, Hereford. He has recently returned from Goa having run a Pre Hospital Emergency Care course for BASICS there.

I could go on; Keith's curriculum vitae runs to 27 pages with over 65 publications, 5 pages of presentations and an active current research programme. The difficulty in presenting Keith is not trying to find something to put in his citation but what to leave out.

I will conclude. No one here, or in the Pre-hospital world, will have the slightest doubt as to the commitment of Keith to Pre Hospital Medical Care. The British Association for Immediate Care has the greatest pleasure in awarding the Laerdal Award for 2004 to Mr Keith McDonald Porter

Dr David Zideman
Chairman
British Association for Immediate Care
October 2004