In memory of Sandy Dickson SCOTTISH CHARITY SCO31165 IMPROVING EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE IN SCOTLAND

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What people say

What Sandpiper means to me-Jack Maitland-aged 12

I was only eight when my cousin Sandy died. I wish I had known him better because I know that I would have had a lot of fun with him. The Sandpiper Trust has helped many people who have had accidents and it has also helped me. It has helped me make friends like Gavin Hastings and his family, and with many doctors ( who I am not nearly so scared of anymore. Sometimes they can even be quite funny!)

I have done quite a lot for Sandpiper. I have made £120 from doing a tom bola, presented equipment to doctors, taken part in Sandpiper Rugby Shirt days, collected money at Murrayfield prior to rugby matches. I have been lucky to meet lots of Scotland’s International rugby players from the past and the present and kicked a rugby ball with them. I have done 4 sponsored walks, the Balmoral run, and one 30 mile bike ride. My brother Harry is also going to try and do the Amsterdam marathon for Sandpiper in October.

When events are coming up the family can get quite chaotic and stressful, but when they are all over it makes me feel good that we have helped a doctor to save someone’s life. In the past year both me and my brother have been to A & E due to sporting injuries, so we know what it feels like to be treated well when you are in pain and you are scared. It feels a lot better to be treated well, than not well!

What the doctors say !

“I last used my bag in the successful resuscitation of a week old baby. The layout it excellent and has given me peace of mind when attending emergencies” - Doctor from the Isle of Lismore

“I used it on an old lady who asphyxiated on a lump of meat - I removed the lump with laryngoscope and Magill forceps & re-oxygenated her - all prior to the arrival of an ambulance - she made a full recovery!” Doctor from Moffat

The bag has quite literally been a lifesaver - having all the emergency equipment in one place makes all the difference. Thank you for our Bag. - :Doctor from Orkney

Dr. Gordon Baird- Chairman,
Rural Practice Standing Group of the Royal College of General Practitioners

The Sandpiper bags represent a real step forward in the provision of pre-hospital care. As well as focussing on the right equipment presented in a very functional way, they apply a uniform standard throughout the country. I am sure that the Sandpiper Bag will continue to save lives in the future and represents a leap forward in the provision of pre- hospital care.

Jim Royan – Chairman, NHS Grampian

If Scotland, and particularly remote and rural Scotland is going to succeed and be relevant to 21st century it will require vision, energy and a ‘can do’ mentality by individuals, communities and organisations to make this happen.

I believe the Sandpiper Trust has the vision, energy, ‘can do’ mentality and a track record that could make it an exemplar of the kind of organisation that helps it underpin both the physical and economic health of rural Scotland.

The impressive work that Sandpiper has carried out in conjunction with frontline clinicians through BASICs will have helped save lives. From the Health Service community, can I say thank you for that. As the Health Service and its partner organisations grapple with the challenges and opportunities of providing safe and sustainable health services in rural Scotland, organisations such as Sandpiper can play an important part beyond what it has already achieved.

Claire Maitland, Trustee,

7 years ago I first entered the world of ‘people’ health. Like many of you today I had no idea how the system worked. What mattered to me was whether the system worked and whether or not patients were getting the care when and wherever it was required. I didn’t really know what a Health Board was let alone a Primary Care Trust or an Acute Trust. Neither did I know where exactly you had to live to be labelled as urban, remote or rural. Did I really care? No!

I joined Grampian Local Health Council in 1998 with very little knowledge about the NHS, other than as patient. During this time I have been involved voluntarily in many different areas including Cardiology, children’s services, mental health, cancer and palliative care. I have listened to many patient’s stories and experiences and have spoken up for many whose voice may not otherwise have been heard. It has also shown me how so many of those working in the medical profession are constantly striving to improve the standard of care currently provided for their patients throughout Scotland. Being a patient in Orkney or the Mull of Kintyre will probably mean that you receive very different treatment, compared to that of a patient in Edinburgh. Patients in many remote parts of Scotland may have to travel long distances in order to receive the care that they require.

The family doctor as you once knew him has all but disappeared and evolved to become a General Practitioner. Now the GP is rapidly becoming a part-time practitioner and part-time specialist in areas such as diabetes, dermatology and palliative care. Many of those more rural GPs have also chosen to train in pre-hospital care, in order to be able to help in emergency situations. Following my nephew Sandy’s tragic death in 2000 I found myself learning about a new department in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Accident and Emergency. I wanted to find out what would happen if sudden illnesses or accidents similar to Sandy’s should occur in rural Scotland, how long it would take for crucial emergency assistance to attend to victim. This lead to my introduction to Dr Colville Laird (Auchterarder) and Dr Ewen McLeod (Ballater) from BASICS-Scotland, who subsequently became the medical advisors to the Sandpiper Trust.

Since 2001, BASICS-Scotland has run at least 60 pre-hospital care courses, with 24 places on each course and a waiting list for every one of them. This shows the level of commitment of many individuals to strive to improve pre-hospital care in rural areas. Sandpiper has provided over 500 of those doctors and nurses with valuable medical equipment and as a result we now have evidence of many more lives having been saved.

We continue to urge Health Boards to provide’ Sandpipers’ in parts of Scotland where ambulance response times can be more difficult to achieve, with vehicle locators which would enable the Scottish Ambulance Service to seek the help prior to the arrival of ambulances. These vehicle locators have been piloted successfully in Scotland this year so, fingers crossed, we hope more will be issued in the not too distant future, as the sooner they are out there in communities, the quicker they will be in use.

Accidents occur and always will. In the UK in 2003, there were 290,607 casualties in road accidents. 3,508 were fatalities. There are over 4000 people killed every year in home and garden accidents and 3 million people attend A& E departments with respect to a home accident. One million of these are children. There are over 400 drownings a year, half of them in rivers streams and lochs.

The success of the Sandpiper Trust is due to the generosity and commitment of yourselves as individuals or businesses. Your continuing support, be it ‘hands on’ or financial will help Sandpiper to evolve in Scotland. From all walks of life people have been touched by what we are trying to achieve, and by why we are trying to achieve it.

A corporate view - STRUTT & PARKER

Like many other businesses, Strutt and Parker give support to charities throughout the UK. However, in Scotland we are a business that deals predominantly in rural property, and that is why we are so supportive of the Sandpiper Trust and what it has set out to achieve. Our staff constantly travel the length and breadth of Scotland and work in precisely those remote and rural areas covered by the GPs that are being equipped by Sandpiper. Many of our clients own properties and employ gamekeepers, foresters, farm workers and estate tradesmen who work in those remote and rural areas.

We are at all risk of an accident in those areas and the fact that such a life might be saved as a result of the emergency equipment provided by Sandpiper explains exactly why the charity is so important and relevant to us as a business.

The Sandpiper Trust has been supported by many Scottish businesses in the last 4 years and it is important that this should continue. From our point of view, Strutt and Parker value the support Sandpiper provides to rural doctors in the areas in which we work, and we wish it continued success in the future.

Dr Fiona Mair GP. Clinical Fellow in A&E Aberdeen and BASICS Scotland

Along with my colleague Dr Colville Laird we have recently trialled the use of the Vehicle Locator Systems (VLS) which is how Scottish Ambulance track all their frontline vehicles so that they know, minute by minute, where they are and can divert them to more life threatening situations as required. If they were unable to get a rapid response unit or frontline ambulance to respond and could see our VLS was active and within an 8 minute response time to that locality they would call on us. We responded to 8 calls over a 3 month period including :

- Road traffic crash, Renault scenic versus HGV lorry, 3 people in Scenic, driver (male) trapped by legs & head injury, female front seat passenger able to step out of vehicle, no apparent signs of injury, 6 month old baby boy, rear of car well secured in baby seat, no apparent injury but very distressed. We both responded to this call and both used our SP bags to administer oxygen and apply cervical collars. All 3 members of Scenic taken to hospital, driver sustained base of skull fracture and bruising, mother & child uninjured. Lorry driver treated at scene for shock.

- Call to home for 10 month old baby in respiratory arrest, responded within 3 minutes, thankfully baby was breathing on our arrival although a little pale in colour, given oxygen from SP bag and admitted to hospital for further monitoring.

- Call to home of gentleman with chest pain, iv access gained, given oxygen and cardiac related drugs, taken to hospital by ambulance, was having an anginal attack -

There is no doubt that the SP bags made a great deal of difference to all of these and other individuals. I thank the Sandpiper Trust for granting me an SP bag.

Dr Roy Burnett-Haddo Medical Practice

Nick is a typical laid-back teenager who does everything listening to his I-Pod. He got off the school bus & crossed the road without looking, or hearing the car passing the bus, which threw him 20-30' into a field.

When a BASICS trained colleague and I arrived, equipped with a Sandpiper bag, his feet were almost where his knees should have been due to bilateral femoral fractures. As is always the case, the bag was invaluable immediately. Within a minute or so we had a cervical collar on, oxygen applied & quickly had venous access for expected fluid replacement & intravenous analgesia. Being able to separate the airway section meant that I could manage Nick's neck/airway (A & B) at the top end whilst Donna was sorting out “C & D” lower down. With both of us being familiar with the layout of the bag, it made managing Nick’s condition much less stressful.

I’m glad to report that Nick made a very good recovery & returned home about two weeks after his accident, walking with two sticks which he rapidly discarded!

PATRON OF THE SANDPIPER TRUST Gavin Hastings. OBE

“It is now exactly 4 years since Sandy Dickson’s family approached me and asked me to be Patron of the Sandpiper Trust. I have been proud to have been very closely associated with a Scottish charity that has gone from strength to strength. It gave me enormous pleasure to be at Murrayfield as the Princess Royal presented the 500th Sandpiper Bag to a rural GP from the Islands prior to the Scotland v Ireland match in February. These 500 bags represent the £500,000 that has been raised by the Sandpiper Trust and is an important milestone for the Trust. All proceeds have gone directly towards providing vital emergency equipment for rural GPs the length and breadth of Scotland. The Sandpiper Trust is a charity which does not waste money on administration and the money that is so generously given by its many supporters goes directly towards achieving the charitable aims that they are supporting. Without doubt, the greatest satisfaction to me comes when I hear reports from GPs of the lives that have been saved in incidents and accidents throughout Scotland as a direct result of the Sandpiper equipment that they have been given. That is the real success of what the Sandpiper Trust has achieved.