Fast response helps to save lives
In a medical emergency the first hour, or golden hour as it is known, can be crucial in determining whether a casualty lives or dies, as GP Dr Mark Folman knows only too well.
Dr Folman (31) a partner at Newark’s Fountain Medical Centre, is often the first on the scene at life-threatening incidents, particularly car crashes.
He is one of 18 doctors who give their time free to the East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme, a registered charity based in Oakham, Rutland.
Dr Folman, of Swinderby, is the only volunteer in the Advertiser area, working alongside paramedics and crews from the East Midlands Ambulance Service.
As soon as his last patient leaves, his pager is switched on. He automatically receives basic details of every 999 call.
If Dr Folman can respond — his car carries £15,000-worth of medical equipment — he goes to incidents where his skills would be most useful, such as where people are trapped in vehicles.
He responds to incidents in Nottinghamshire that are within 20 miles of his home and those in Lincolnshire within about 13 miles.
The last major incident he attended in the area was a crash on the A614 at Bilsthorpe in November.
He said the patient, who had serious head and leg injuries received advanced medical treatment during the two hours it took firefighters to release him from his car, which had hit a tree.
Dr Folman said: “It showed the excellent teamwork that there is within the emergency services.
“Along with providing skills, I spent a lot of time liaising with the fire brigade commander to make sure that we were not getting in each other’s way and were intervening in the best interests of the patient.”
Dr Folman has volunteered for a year and goes to an average of three calls a week. Most are in the evenings, at weekends and on days off.
“I am sure it is similar to anyone else doing a job,” he said.
“If I think too much about the job I am going to attend while driving there, I am not concentrating on driving.”
Dr Folman, a former Army GP who completed two tours of Iraq, said he enjoyed the challenge and it was very different to his day-to-day work.
He said he had the ability to make an instant difference to someone’s life.
He said the emergency doctors did not replace ambulance crews but worked alongside and in support of them.
Dr Folman has received specialist training and can sedate or anaesthetise patients, which ambulance crews cannot do.
He said most of the regular crews knew him and sometimes called him directly on his mobile telephone to request his help.
Dr Folman said in road collisions the first hour was often referred to as the golden hour and, in many cases, the hour had passed before people were freed from the vehicle.
“We have to take the care to the patient,” he said.
Dr Folman said he could ensure a patient went to the most appropriate hospital for their condition, something paramedics could not always do.
He often leaves his car at the roadside to go with a patient in the ambulance in case there are any complications.
Dr Folman has undergone advanced driving training, most of it during darkness because that is when he attends most incidents.
His car is fitted with blue lights and carries equipment including an electrocardiogram to monitor the heart, a defibrillator to restart the heart, and equipment to monitor oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and blood pressure. He has a protective suit, a helmet and goggles.
The East Midlands Immediate Care Service is trying to raise £75,000 to equip five newly-recruited doctors to help expand the service — one of 22 accredited by the British Association For Immediate Care, the national co-ordinating body.
Members have attended major incidents such as the Kegworth air crash in 1989 and the July 2005 London bombings.
Dr Folman said it would be nice if, in the future, there was a dedicated team to do it as a full-time paid job. He said there were enough incidents to justify it.
Since 2005, Dr Folman has also volunteered with Magpas, the emergency medical charity for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Two days a month he leaves home at 5.30am to drive to Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, for a ten-hour shift. He flies with the East Anglian Air Ambulance or Cambridge Police Helicopter or travels in a response car.
Dr Folman studied medicine at Glasgow University and qualified as a doctor in 2000. He was an Army GP for seven years and left in 2007.
He passed the diploma in immediate medical care from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in September 2004.
He also passed the Magpas emergency medical team exam in prehospital medicine and emergency anaesthesia.
He said his wife, Mrs Emma Folman (29) was supportive and understood he enjoyed being a voluntary emergency doctor.
Anyone who wishes to support the work of EMICS can contact the office on 01572 759680 or visit www.emics.org.uk
