A group of West Country doctors have been volunteering as emergency responders in their spare time to help patients in need of medical attention. The four doctors - Andrew Heavyside from Winterbourne, Glyn Thomas from Bristol, Mark Tehan from South Gloucestershire and James Tooley from Somerset - all choose to hang up their uniforms after shifts and go back onto the frontline to help the ambulance service.
They volunteer for a charity called Bravo Medics, and by responding to emergency calls alongside the ambulance service they can offer patients a higher level of care at the scene of an incident around the clock, rather than the patient having to wait to arrive at an accident and emergency department to see a doctor.
Andrew, who works as an anaesthetist told Bristol Live: "All of us are just really passionate about the fact that (care) should be available 24 hours a day. I think our main driver as a group is wanting to have 24-hour care available for patients because, while there's relatively few patients outside of day time, there are still people that, if it was someone you knew, you would want to know that they were getting the best treatment."
