GPs to support ambulance service

More doctors are to volunteer to work alongside paramedics at the scene of road accidents.

A charity called The East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme (EMICS) will see GPs helping ambulance staff in the region treat injured people.

It launched on Monday following a successful 20-year run in Rutland.

It is hoped the idea, which sees GPs in specially equipped cars and alerted by pagers, will cut the number of fatalities on the roads.

The cars we travel in, while being our own cars, are well equipped Dr Nick Foster

Dr Tim Gray, the organisation's founder, hoped it would fit in among other lifesaving services.

He said: "It is a way of supporting people who are seriously injured and in need of help.

"I see it very much like the lifeboat institute, which is a charity and the air ambulance, which is also a charity.

"I think both of those organisations are well supported, they deserve that support and I hope people will see us in the same light."

Nick Foster, one of the doctors who could be getting an emergency call out, described how it worked.

Official launch

He said: "We now have a paging system and are alerted directly by the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

"So if they get a serious road traffic accident and they want extra assistance they just page us, the pager goes off and we respond directly.

"The cars we travel in, while being our own cars, are well equipped.

"It is almost like a travelling intensive care unit with lights, sirens and radios."

The project was officially launched at the headquarters of the East Midlands Ambulance service.