Helimedix History
Magpas was formed in 1971. In those days it was known as the Mid Anglia General Practitioner Accident Service (MAGPAS).
It was the brainchild of Dr Neville Silverston MBE, a GP, who whilst at an award ceremony met another GP who was being celebrated, Dr Ken Easton. Dr Easton had started something called an `Immediate Care Scheme’ in North Ridings, Yorkshire. This involved GPs going to the scenes of road traffic accidents. Dr Silverston realised a similar scheme could save lives in Cambridgeshire.
Under the leadership of Dr Silverston and Dr Dereck Cracknell (a GP from Huntingdon), MAGPAS soon earned a reputation as the leading immediate care scheme in the country.
In the early days the GPs were called away from their practices and travelled to the scene in their own cars.
Over the following 30 years, there were many developments and improvements within the Ambulance service itself and it became clear that for MAGPAS to continue to add patient benefit it would need to change.
In 2000 Dr Mackenzie a MAGPAS volunteer and hospital based Consultant in Emergency Medicine reassessed the MAGPAS service and put forward a plan to change the operation into doctors and paramedics being highly trained and working in teams of two. Rota shifts were put in place to enable the teams to be located centrally. This team became known as the Emergency Medical Team.
Video footage of Dr Mackenzie interview – will be available on youtube first thing in the morning
The Emergency Medical Team started using the police helicopter to get to incidents that were further afield. The team is now co-located with the police Air Operations Unit at RAF Wyton.
In June 2010 the Emergency Medical Team was renamed Magpas Helimedix 24/7 to reflect the aim of providing a 24 hour service to the people of East Anglia.
