FOR the past 40 years members of the Voluntary Medical Response Service (VMRS) have been providing their medical services to those in need.

The organisation, which was started by Dr. Nick Holmes, are first responders to accident scenes and often work to stabilise an injured patient.

Covering a vast area from the Bluff to Savanah Park, including Hillary, Bellair and the Queensburgh area, the organisation is manned by close to 20 volunteers, two doctors and three registered nurses.

Dr. Jitaryu Gopal, or Dr. Jinn as he is known to his friends and family, spoke to Queensburgh News about the work they do.

“In essence VMRS is a free and voluntary medical response service. It was founded 40 years ago by Dr. Nick Holmes and is strictly voluntary-based. We run only on sponsorships and donations and we are community-based. The community we service is quite large and we respond to and have responded to various areas including Queensburgh.

“We respond to certain scenes of real emergency cases where emergency response services (EMRS) are unavailable. If they can’t attend to scenes we step in to fill that gap. Our mission is threefold; it is first response, the second is to stabilise patients and third is to hand over the scene. We do this for free. We don’t transport the patient, but stabilise and arrange the necessary ambulance services or medical services to assist further,” Dr. Gopal said.

The organisation also does house calls but there is a charge with that response.

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Dr. Holmes, who began the service in 1997, explained how it came about.

“When I was a child I was involved in the Red Cross. One of the days I was returning back from a rugby game that we had volunteered at and there was a nasty accident on Fields Hill. We called it in to emergency services and were told not to touch the patient until we know who is paying the bill. It was then that I decided to form this voluntary medical response service because, simply put, healthcare is a right.

“Over the years we’ve had more than 100 volunteers and at one stage we had seven vehicles operating, however now we are running just two. It is important to note that while we are open to volunteers, Dr. Gopal, myself and our three nurses are the only ones that touch the patients. The volunteers and trainees handle the scene in terms of traffic control or crowd control. We do cover basic first aid training for volunteers. Before coming on to a scene we teach them how to carry out first aid; we won’t crowd the scene if there is a private ambulance on scene,” he said.

If people would like to join or donate, visit the VMRS Facebook page or find them on Instagram.

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