The Hyperbaric Unit now provides a backup facility to the Northwest Ambulance Service. The scheme was introduced
in April 2002 and is known as 'First Responder'.
The team are all medical staff and have skills in advanced life support and trauma, and are able to deliver life saving
intervention until paramedics arrive. Also, the scheme now provides doctors who are all consultant anaesthetists with
skills in trauma management and who are used to working outside the hospital environment.
They can provide medical aid at the scene of an incident where a casualty may be trapped, or techniques that would
normally be performed in hospital which may need to be performed immediately, at the scene, to save life.
When responding as a medical team they normally have a nurse technician and a doctor, and when used in the conjunction
with the ambulance service this offers an excellent life saving opportunity for the patient.
hyperbaric medicine 