Penrith’s BEEP doctors have received £20,000 to help look after their vehicles and equipment.
The charity made a successful bid to the British Association for Immediate Care and was handed £20,851.76.
The association has an annual pot of £250,000 from the County Air Ambulance HELP Appeal – the only charity in the country dedicated to funding NHS hospital helipads.
The grant has been used to kit out several emergency vehicles with essential blue lights and sirens, as well as other equipment needed on the vehicle for responding to emergencies and for personal protective equipment.
The group had received a grant in June to kit out one vehicle and this second grant has helped equip several more.
The charity is a lifeline to many hundreds of patients involved in serious incidents across Cumbria.
This year, the team has been called to 192 incidents so far, including road traffic collisions, farming accidents or other life-threatening medical emergencies.
The BEEP doctors are all unpaid and are on call 24/7 – even during the pandemic, when many of them have been working in hospitals and the local community.
Every doctor on call attending such incidents must be prepared with vital lifesaving equipment, which runs into thousands of pounds.
Paramedics are able to deal with the vast majority of emergencies that they are called to.
But BEEP Doctors have specialist training in enhanced pre-hospital emergency care and provide an extra level of medical intervention not normally available until the patient reaches hospital.
The BEEP Doctors are not funded by the NHS, so donations, fundraising events and grants are vital to help them save lives.
Dr Theo Weston, founder of the BEEP Doctors charity, said: “This grant means such a lot to our charity and has come at just the right time for us.
“BEEP Doctors are going through a very exciting change and expansion with several more doctors starting to respond for us, so that we are now significantly increasing our cover throughout Cumbria.
“This donation will consolidate these changes with immediate effect and will really help us to move forward towards providing a much more comprehensive cover for the whole of this region. This grant has given the whole team an enormous boost, especially at such a difficult time.”
