Of course where riding horses is involved, there is always a certain level of risk. Therefore, doctors are an essential cog in the wheel of the team behind running equestrian events. Here, we take a look behind the scenes with the team of doctors at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials which happened last weekend (31 August-3 September).
Chief medical officer John Inman starts the day briefing the countless course doctors on cross-country day at Burghley. The doctors are responsible for any care and treatment of competitors and visitors to the event.
As well as Dr John Inman, Dr Leon Roberts MBE is present. He is one of the GPs that works at the horse trials, plus Dr Thomas Cowlam who is one of the doctors on the emergency mobile teams.
“For the crowd we have six doctors in the main first aid area and 36 doctors on the course,” explains John.
“We’re really fortunate that John has developed a very committed team who have got a wealth of experience and it means we can have doctors almost everywhere on the course to give those early updates to make sure we know what’s going on,” says Leon.
“We have a very wide array of kit,” says Tom. “Essentially we carry the same things as what we do when we do our day job up in HEMS [air ambulance], and as doctors and paramedics, so we’re able to deliver an advanced form of care to patients at the side of the fence as it may well be.”
“We’re very fortunate here in that there’s a charity called East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme (EMICS), and the EMICS doctors are now running with the local air ambulance service, which has enabled us to have four helicopter paramedics as part of our team, which is a really great thing,” says John.
Don’t miss this Thursday’s issue of Horse & Hound magazine (7 September 2017), with our full report and analysis from Burghley Horse Trials
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