British Association for Immediate Care



The British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS) is a registered charity which acts as the national coordinating body for both schemes and individuals providing Immediate Care throughout the United Kingdom. The organisation relies on volunteer medical professionals to provide immediate healthcare assistance.

Purpose of the organisation
BASICS is an association of health care professionals, who undertake additional training as immediate care practitioners. The members provide their services in support of the statutory or voluntary ambulance services.

BASICS as an organisation operates on four levels for its members:
 * 1) A professional body to represent members interests
 * 2) An operational body to facilitate the individual schemes
 * 3) A training body to further knowledge amongst its members
 * 4) An advisory body for its members and other stakholders

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. Further support for the work of BASICS during major incidents came following the July 7th terrorist attacks on London, when the British Medical Association started a series of training courses (over 3 years) to be organised by BASICS.

They also work at private events, often alongside the voluntary ambulance services (Red Cross and St John Ambulance) or the statutory service. This means that BASICS members can be found at events such as:
 * large sporting events (including Football Association matches)
 * major incidents,
 * public rallies
 * mass gathering events
 * concerts

Local applications
BASICS 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 along side the fire service to co-ordinate the rescue. BASICS can supplement the skill set available at scene with a medical doctor, who can provide skills outside the remit of paramedics, such as analgesia and, if necessary, surgical procedures which might be needed to extricate the patient.

Doctors
BASICS started up as a small number of General Practitioners who where concerned about the immediate care that car crash victims were receiving. Their goal was to bring increased clinical expertise to the scene on a voluntary basis. Now BASICS Doctors come from a wide range of specialities, including:
 * General Practice
 * Surgery
 * Medicine
 * Emergency Medicine
 * Anaesthesia & Critical Care

Registered nurses
Nurses who specialise in pre-hospital care play a very important in the delivery of the care of the patient. The level that these skils are expressed by the practitioner is varied and may range from the first responder role delivering the all important first defibrillator shock, to the immediate care practitoner who is able to work at Advanced Nurse Practitioner level with a high degrees of clinical autonomy and decision making.