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Birth of BASICS
In 1977 the British Association of Immediate Care Schemes was born with the support of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Ken Easton being the first chairman.
As a result of his enthusiastic championing of immediate care through the 1960’s into the 1970’s immediate care had gained a respectability that invigorated young doctors who went on to develop their own careers, some of them as international figures, whilst retaining an interest in immediate care, a generation who largely remain with us today and who in turn have stimulated a later generation who are the stalwarts of today’s immediate care schemes around the UK.
Whilst capturing the interests of his counterparts Dr Easton and his colleagues were not so successful in gaining government support.
Much respected internationally Ken Easton was the recipient of a Nuffield Fellowship in the early 1970’s and travelled and lectured extensively within Asia and Australia.
Growth Of BASICS
Since those early days BASICS has grown to include an Education service providing internationally respected training in immediate care both in the civilian and military settings that now encompasses different health care professions and has been taught by BASICS instructors as far afield as Goa in India to Cyprus, from Malta to the eastern Bloc with students travelling from across the globe to develop their pre-hospital skills.
BASICS has changed since its inception, its name was changed to the British Association for Immediate Care, reflecting its broader multi-disciplinary membership base of whom only the core are Scheme members the others practicing pre-hospital care in many different voluntary and employed settings.
BASICS Today
Today BASICS is a recognised authority on pre-hospital immediate care with its senior members advising within a number of governmental and non-governmental projects ranging from pandemic flu to civil resilience. The Resuscitation council (UK) started life as a sub-committee of BASICS (the Community Resuscitation Advisory Committee) and today the strong links remain as they do with the Faculty of Pre-hospital Care at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
BASICS is a strong and vibrant professional association that brings together a wide range of individuals and maintains the driving force behind many of today’s leading developments in pre-hospital care.
