The service, which is based in Woolpit, provides specialist doctors and paramedics to help assist the East of England Ambulance Service.
The service, which is based in Woolpit, provides specialist doctors and paramedics to help assist the East of England Ambulance Service.
In the past 12 months over 300 calls were responded to.
Last month the service was mobilised 35 times by Christmas Eve.
“We are still making a difference 46 years later,” says Ben Hall the operations manager for SARS.
“Our volunteer responders include anaesthetists, critical care paramedics and other specialists in prehospital care,” explains Ben.
The service only go to specific incidents, one’s where their specialist skills can be best utilised such as road traffic accidents and cardiac arrests.
These volunteers are split into two sections; solo responders - those who go out to incidents on their own - and teams who are made up of doctors and paramedics.
Prehospital treatment, the likes of which are provided by the service, can be trying, Ben explains, particularly given the locations of the calls they attend.
“These clinicians can undertake advanced procedures at an incident scene, which would not normally be possible outside a hospital environment.
“We are a small charity but we can make a big difference to these time-critical patients.”
Last year SARS responders went to 125 locations across the county. Towns like Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds and Lowestoft had regular visits from the volunteers.
In the past year donations to SARS have increased by around £700 to almost £112,000.
“It’s great to increase our fundraising even by a small amount,” says Ben.
“For small charities like SARS, every donation makes a difference and even a few pounds can help buy a piece of kit, which could go on to save someone’s life.”
The service continue to look for support to help them treat patients in the coming year.
Sometimes because of the serious nature of the cases, the work of the volunteers goes unrecognised.
“Many of the patients won’t know they have been treated by us,” says Ben.
“The impact we can make for these people is massive.
“We save lives.”
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