On the 26 October 2020 the British Association for immediate Care announced grants worth over £177,000 to be shared across ten of its affiliated schemes. The grants, enabled by a donation from the HELP Appeal, provide for three new critical care vehicles as well as essential safety equipment benefitting more than 80 medical, paramedic and nursing volunteers across the UK.

Paul Gates, the Chairman of the British Association for Immediate Care explained, ‘These grants make a huge difference to our schemes and are used to purchase response vehicles, equip vehicles with blue light warning equipment, sat nav etc, without which, we would not be able to undertake our voluntary role. The HELP Appeal’s generosity enables our members to save lives through having safely equipped and maintained vehicles which are so essential to their role.’

The 2020 grant will be distributed to BASICS Cornwall; BASICS Devon; BASICS North Staffordshire; the BEEP Fund (Penrith area); BRAVO Medics (Bristol area); East Midlands Immediate Care scheme, (EMICS); LIVES (Lincolnshire); MAGPAS (Mid Anglia); the West Midlands Care Team and the West Yorkshire Medic Response Team.

Daryl Brown, Chief Executive of MAGPAS, based in the Mid Anglian area, which provides a helicopter and road service and is one of the schemes’ receiving funding said:  “MAGPAS is delighted to receive this funding towards our new Rapid Response Vehicle for Bedfordshire. This critical care provision in Luton is absolutely essential. With high levels of traumatic injury, many parts of Bedfordshire are far away from major trauma centres and doctors working at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital tell us they are in desperate need of medics specially trained in pre-hospital emergency medicine on the ground in the county. This grant that will fund a MAGPAS Rapid Response Vehicle will be a major benefit for patients in Luton, Bedfordshire and surrounding areas, bringing quick lifesaving care to those in need.”

 Dr Theo Weston MBE, Chairman of the BEEP fund, an immediate care scheme based in the Lake District said: “This I fantastic news and will really give our newly energised & progressive Fund a massive boost. I am so grateful to the British Association for Immediate Care for this and to the HELP Appeal. “We are going through a very exciting period of change and expansion with several more Doctors starting to respond for us so that we are now significantly increasing our cover throughout Cumbria. This donation will consolidate these changes with immediate effect and will really help us to move forward towards providing a much more comprehensive cover for the whole of this region.”

 About the grants

The grants are given by the British Association for Immediate Care, enabled by a donation from the HELP Appeal. Last year (2019), £250,000 worth of grants were distributed across thirteen affiliate schemes of the British Association for Immediate care, also enabled by a donation from the HELP Appeal. As with the current grants the monies provided for the costs associated with the equipping and maintenance of vehicles used by scheme members to provide voluntary pre-hospital immediate care on behalf of their local NHS Ambulance Trusts as part of their 999-emergency response.