Paramedics at fight shows

[The Treatment]

Good comments and a good discussion.

However, the main point here is that fighters and camps continue to support events with sub standard medical cover. I have, on a number of occasions had the discussion with promoters prior to an event when matching fighters to ensure the correct cover is in place, and have even left with my team when arriving to find that the cover is not in place.

But I see people all the time who don't know or even ask the question.
You can blame whoever you like and give reasons like promoters not willing to spend the money, but if you attend and support each time, they'll never have to will they?

It's bad enough in this game that someone with 3 weeks training (or less) can bullshit their way into a contest because they have a punchers chance. It's also bad enough that hardly anyone adheres to medical suspensions - and that is where the coaches have a duty of care. Because, however you dress it up, a tragedy is only one punch away both in the gym and in the cage/ring, and having just had a bit of brain surgery, I 100% know that to be correct

[SlimDavy]

Realistically speaking there should be more than a paramedic team there, they should have a Doctor there too.

[Sport Doctors UK]

Hello

Thought I'd add my tuppence to this thread. I'm a doctor working in the NHS, and I also run a company which provides doctors for medical cover at various events around the country, mostly motorsports events, equestrian events & concerts but also a fair bit of martial arts and MMA shows.

I agree with most of what's been said already - the average GP / hospital doctor would struggle to provide good medical care for MMA competitions. They're generally not trained for sports injuries, and are very used to dealing with patients in a nice quiet room who are already on a couch / bed in a safe, quiet environment where all their usual 'tools' are immediately available. To provide the same standard of care in an octagon with a screaming crowd in the background and very little in the way of equipment to hand is sometimes very difficult, and if you've not had the experience / training to do this, you will struggle to treat the patient properly & prioritise their care.

Paramedics are very good at this because they are trained to work in difficult, noisy, hostile environments. They can stabilise patients and treat them to a certain degree, but a doctor who is well-trained in Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine should always be able to provide better care to the more seriously injured patient. This is what would be the best for a MMA competition.

Given that there's no governing body (yet...) to stipulate requirements for medical staff, there is a wide variety of medical cover at MMA competitions. Even if doctors are on site, I've heard of stories where Gynaecologists or Old-Age Psychiatrists have taken on this sort of work - as a doctor who's dealt with a lot of seriously injured patients at events over the years, this scares the **** out of me!

As for where to find doctors to cover events, you could give us a call / email and if we can't help out, we've got contact details for appropriately trained doctors in most parts of the country. Money is always an issue when organising medical cover, but we've been asked back to cover the same events for a number of years so I don't think we're too expensive

Hope that helps.

Jeremy


Dr Jeremy Hyams
Managing Director, Sport Doctors UK
www.sportdoctors.co.uk
info@sportdoctors.co.uk

[Sport Doctors UK]

ps. As already said, St John's Ambulance staff are non-medical people who have undertaken first aid training. They're OK at minor injury treatment, but anything beyond that they will struggle with / treat inappropriately. The last concert I covered, they had started CPR on someone who was conscious and asking them to stop...

[mac the medic]

Paramedics are very good at this because they are trained to work in difficult, noisy, hostile environments. They can stabilise patients and treat them to a certain degree, but a doctor who is well-trained in Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine should always be able to provide better care to the more seriously injured patient. This is what would be the best for a MMA competition.

Given that there's no governing body (yet...) to stipulate requirements for medical staff, there is a wide variety of medical cover at MMA competitions. Even if doctors are on site, I've heard of stories where Gynaecologists or Old-Age Psychiatrists have taken on this sort of work - as a doctor who's dealt with a lot of seriously injured patients at events over the years, this scares the **** out of me!





Dr Jeremy Hyams
Managing Director, Sport Doctors UK
www.sportdoctors.co.uk
info@sportdoctors.co.uk

ok so there you have it from an experienced event Doc, paramedics & Doc's working side by side..... no bad thing.