Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst, Member of Parliament for Solihull West & Shirley and former trauma surgeon, met with Terry Flower of FastAid Solihull & Birmingham.
FastAid are dispatched to urgent 999 calls by West Midlands Ambulance Emergency Operations Centre. Because they are local, FastAid volunteers can be on scene quickly to commence lifesaving treatment, begin clinical care and provide reassurance to patients and relatives. Volunteers have to train and be prepared for every kind of emergency involving patients of all ages. This year, their youngest patient was just 12 days old, the oldest 104 years.
In 2024, their local scheme car, RC 439A, was tasked to 580 emergency 999 calls. It was donated by JLR in 2019 and is ready to respond in all weathers. Over the past 6 years, FastAid volunteers have answered over 3,000 emergencies in the Discovery Sport. Lives saved, casualties helped, and families grateful. A huge team effort from a dedicated group. One third of calls were Category One, deemed immediately life threatening, such as cardiac arrests, choking, fitting, and anaphylaxis. Category Two calls, which are also life-threatening included heart attacks, strokes, allergic reactions, severe haemorrhage, asthma, road traffic collisions, and falls with serious injury. FastAid were first to arrive in 90% of calls.
Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst MP said:
Firstly, I wanted to thank Terry and everyone at FastAid for their commendable community service. FastAid play a vital role attending medical emergencies in the constituency. Being locally based, they are able to be the first to arrive on scene; thereby delivering lifesaving treatment promptly.
At our meeting, we discussed the need for more defibrillators and bleed kits to be available to the public. That is why am raising money for The Daniel Baird Foundation to fund more defibrillators and bleed kits in Solihull West & Shirley by walking the Solihull Way in the Spring.
Donations can be made to Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst MP’s fundraiser via the website https://gofund.me/34acfa37
