A LIFESAVING team of volunteers delivering advanced emergency pre-hospital care to seriously injured and critically unwell patients in Herefordshire has benefitted from a £4,000 grant to help keep them on the road.

The Mercia Accident Rescue Service, which also covers Worcestershire and the West Midlands, are among six such schemes across Britain to recently receive the grant funding. totalling over £32,000, from the British Association for Immediate Care grant for vehicle maintenance and equipment.

This financial year a total of £250,000 has been distributed to thirteen affiliated schemes through a grant from the British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS) which is enabled by a generous donation from the HELP Appeal.

The grants provide 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.

The Mercia Accident Rescue Service is a charitable team of 18 volunteer doctors, nurses and paramedics who provide advanced pre-hospital medical care to patients in central England.

Based across Herefordshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands, they cover over 2500 square miles from Ross-on-Wye to the south all the way up to Cannock in the north.

Responding in their own personal cars that are fitted out with blue lights and sirens, the service looks after critically ill patients including those severely injured in car crashes, industrial incidents, shootings and stabbings, through to adult and child cardiac arrests and those others with serious medical problems, such as heart attacks, fits, and breathing problems

Paul Gates, chairman of the British Association for Immediate Care said: "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."

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