DocBike given £30,000 grant from Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance
The money will fund two critical care monitors for their life-saving work
Last updated 20th Jun 2022
DocBike have received a £30,000 grant from Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance (DSAA), to fund two critical care monitors to support their life-saving work.
Working as key partners to prevent people from being involved in road traffic collisions and becoming patients in the first place, the grant from DSAA is aligned to both charities’ overall injury prevention strategy to benefit society.
DocBike is an injury prevention charity which aims to significantly reduce the number of motorcyclists killed or critically injured on our roads due to motorcycle collisions. Although DocBike operates as an independent charity, it’s partnership with the air ambulance means that it also forms one of several injury prevention arms of DSAA, which engages with motorcyclists to deliver key injury prevention messages, whilst also working alongside local emergency services to provide roadside critical care.
When DocBike clinicians respond to an emergency on the bikes, they do so with the same critical care doctors and practitioners that work on the air ambulance, and operate under the clinical governance procedures of DSAA’s critical care service. Recognising the benefits of carrying the same critical care monitoring system as DSAA, the charity wanted to update its existing units to ensure that their full inventory of medical equipment replicated that carried onboard the air ambulance.
The significant grant from DSAA has enabled DocBike to purchase two Zoll X Series critical care monitors from Zoll Medical Corporation, which will enable DocBike clinicians to manage a range of complex medical needs for patients; from those that need defibrillation due to suffering a cardiac arrest, to the most advanced blood pressure or pre-hospital patient monitoring.
Speaking of the grant and the benefit that the monitors will bring to the charity, Dr Ian Mew, Co-Founder and Trustee of DocBike said:
“The Zoll monitors are essentially the best piece of critical care monitoring equipment that we can find to treat patients that are severely injured or ill, or who are suffering during or post cardiac arrest. The capability of one device to do everything robustly and reliably is phenomenal. This is why DSAA and the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASfT) use the Zoll monitors and why DocBike were keen to use the same monitoring system, such that not only are we ensuring that patients receive the best level of care, but also ensuring a seamless transition of that care between all parties at incidents, which will help to save time and save people’s lives.
“We are immensely grateful to DSAA for this grant which will be hugely beneficial to the charity and the patients that we help. We are proud to work with an organisation that truly centres their work around what is going to help save people’s lives and bring significant benefit to society.
“As DocBike clinicians who are trying to keep people alive and families together, having the close working relationship that we do with DSAA enables us to achieve this, so their generous donation and ongoing support is very much appreciated.”
Bill Sivewright, Chief Executive Officer of Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance added:
“The rationale behind awarding this grant is very straight forward because in order to do what we do, we have set out a stall of collaborating with other organisations. One of these key collaborations has been with DocBike because it lies at the very centre of our injury prevention agenda, where were trying to help people to avoid being in a road traffic collision and becoming patients in the first place.
“DocBike’s injury prevention work forms part of that core purpose and since it first started, it has now moved into responding to incidents to help patients in need. Often their patients will become our patients, so if we can offer seamless care through that transition from DocBike into our critical care, then that’s better for the patient.
“The other reason we were able to do this is because DocBike not only supports our aim in terms of injury prevention and the treatment of patients, but it’s also the fact that they are a fully governed charity, with their medical activity effectively being governed by DSAA and SWASfT.”
Speaking of their relationship with DocBike and DSAA, Chantal Wright, UK Sales Manager of ZOLL Medical Corporation said:
“At ZOLL we are immensely privileged to be able to partner with both of these charities. They are equally committed to preventing people from becoming patients and also providing the highest level of critical care. Improving patient outcomes is at the heart of everything they do and it’s humbling to see the tireless work they continue to do in moving patient care forward. I’m certain they have more hours in a day than I do!”