The British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS) is an organisation which has the stated aim to encourage and aid the formation and extension of immediate care schemes. The ''British Association for Immediate Care'' was founded as a charity in 1977 and combines bringing people together who have an interest in pre-hospital immediate care with supporting and promoting regional and local immediate care schemes across the UK. The organisation relies on volunteer

medical professionals A health professional, healthcare professional, or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physician (su ...

to provide healthcare assistance in support of the emergency services. It is registered as a

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

History

The British Association of Immediate Care Schemes was established in June 1977. Kenneth Easton, a General Practitioner, was the first chairman of the organisation. Initially it was formed from the existing schemes. The organisation then offered individual membership to doctors that had an interest in immediate care, such as those working in General Practice, Surgery, Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Anaesthesia and Critical Care. Associate membership was open to paramedics and nurses which later again changed to offering full membership recognising the changing roles of these professions . In 1991, the organisation increased their involvement in educational aspects, making available residential courses covering pre-hospital care and resuscitation. Around this time, it became clear that Scotland had different requirements to the rest of the UK, and

BASICS Scotland The British Association for Immediate Care Scotland (BASICS Scotland) is an organisation involved with prehospital care. It has the aims of providing encouragement and aid with the formation of immediate care schemes and to provide training to s ...

was formed. In 1998, the organisation brought in a scheme for its members to have voluntary accreditation. Further support for the work of BASICS during major incidents came after the

7 July 2005 London bombings The 7 July 2005 London bombings, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamic terrorists in London that targeted commuters travelling on the city's public transport system during the mo ...

. The following year the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

announced their support for a series of training courses, over three years, to be organised by BASICS.

Purpose

BASICS is an association of

health care professionals A health professional, healthcare professional, or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physician (suc ...

, who undertake additional training as immediate care practitioners. The members provide their services in support of the statutory or voluntary

ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...

services.

BASICS members are used to provide extra skills at the scene of major incidents, or for particularly difficult patients. For this, individuals may be summoned on a case-by-case basis by the local ambulance control centre.

Affiliated BASICS schemes

BASICS schemes across the country assist the ambulance service trusts where a multi-agency response is required at a local level, or additional skills and qualification levels are required. An example of this multi-agency response would be seen at an 'industrial accident' where for example a worker has become trapped in machinery. The ambulance service would work alongside the fire service to co-ordinate the rescue. Individual schemes can supplement the skill set available at scene with a

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, nurse or critical care paramedics, who can provide skills outside the remit of most front-line paramedics. These supplementary skills include different methods of providing

analgesia Pain management is an aspect of medicine and health care involving relief of pain (pain relief, analgesia, pain control) in various dimensions, from acute and simple to chronic and challenging. Most physicians and other health professionals ...

and, if necessary, surgical procedures which might be needed to extricate the patient. BASICS schemes may make use of all grades of

first responder A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or terr ...

including doctors, critical care paramedics, paramedics and nurses alongside

community first responder A Community first responder (CFR), is a person available to be dispatched by an ambulance control centre to attend medical emergencies in their local area. They can be members of the public, who have received training in life-saving interventions s ...

Local schemes

BASICS-affiliated schemes across the UK include: While BASICS has individual members in Scotland,

takes a lead role in providing prehospital training and supporting responders in Scotland.

Notable Individuals

Many of those who have worked or volunteered for BASICS have been awarded various awards or honours. * Mr Tony Kemp, MBE MStJ. Past chairman and responder to the

Shoreham Airshow Shoreham Airshow took place annually, in the late summer, at Brighton City Airport (commonly known as Shoreham Airport), on the south coast of England. It was organised by volunteers from the local branch of the Royal Air Forces Association (RAF ...

disaster. * Prof Tom Quinn, FRCN FESC. Emeritus Professor of Cardiovascular Nursing and Trustee of BASICS.

7/7 response

Following the

, 17 doctors from HEMS London and BASICS London were deployed to the various attack sites to assist HEMS and

London Ambulance Service The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (LAS) is an NHS trust responsible for operating ambulances and answering and responding to urgent and emergency medical situations within the London region of England. The service responds to 999 phone cal ...

paramedics.

Gareth Davies (doctor) Gareth Davies (born 10 March 1965) is a physician and Consultant (medicine), Consultant in Emergency medicine, Emergency Medicine and Pre-hospital emergency medicine, Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine, working for the NHS at the Royal London Hospi ...

was the Medical Incident Officer for the Aldgate site, with David Wise fulfilling this role at Paddington, Tim Harris and Julian Redhead at Tavistock Square.

References

External links

* {{authority control Emergency medicine organisations Medical associations based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Suffolk First aid organizations Organizations established in 1977 1977 establishments in the United Kingdom