Mark Oaten Holds Parliamentary Debate on Funding for Specialist Trauma Response Teams

Mark Oaten has continued the campaign to get volunteer doctors who administer highly complex medical treatments at the scene of a serious incident by holding a debate on the subject in Parliament.

Mr Oaten had previously tabled a number of Parliamentary Questions and Early Day Motion 1334 on the subject whilst also liaising with other interested MPs and medical groups. On Wednesday he took the issue further by securing a debate in Westminster Hall.

In that debate Mark outlined why this vital service, currently operated on a voluntary basis by charitable groups such as BASICS doctors, should be centrally funded. Despite Government responses that this should be down to local decision makers many MPs expressed their agreement with the need for central funding.

In Hampshire alone BASICS doctors are called out between 2 to 8 times a day where their advanced training is required, particularly for airway management and anaesthetic usage. The care administered during these crucial few minutes can make the difference between life and death and it is unacceptable to leave this emergency response to the goodwill and availability of volunteer doctors who already work full time for the NHS.

Doctors are put in the unenviable position of having to decide what is more important – staying in the A&E or rushing out, with the use of their own private cars, to carry out potentially life saving procedures on critically injured patients. During the debate Government health Minister Ben Bradshaw admitted that Britain was not doing as well as it should be in this area.

Mark Oaten commented:

“I was amazed when doctors from my constituency told me that the absolutely vital role they perform was done on a voluntary basis. Like many people I automatically assumed the doctors who carry out these complicated procedures out of the hospital that save lives, were funded by the NHS.

“We should all be very grateful of course to their professionalism and goodwill to perform this on a charitable basis but that’s just not sustainable. Its time that the funding, and we are talking about relatively small sums, was made available to fill this gap in emergency care.