Long-standing GPC member and former negotiator Dr Peter Holden has received a lifetime achievement award for his work with the air ambulance services and pioneering work in pre-hospital emergency medicine (PHEM).
Dr Holden told Pulse he was ‘chuffed to bits’ at being presented with the award at National Air Ambulance Awards of Excellence last night, and said it said it recognised the value that GPs can bring to emergency medicine.
The award recognises 32 years of voluntary service spanning clinical medicine, training and policy in (PHEM), beginning with immediate care work in motorsport and then Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, and Magpas Air Ambulance services.
Dr Holden told Pulse that vaving earned a ‘total sum of around £200 in my lifetime’ from his PHEM career, the award going to a GP was particularly significant, as recently the field had come to be dominated by physicians and anaesthetists.
He said: ‘Recently there’s been a feeling it was becoming a closed shop of people who could anesthetise at the road side, and the whole game is much more than that. It covers a huge area, and I think it’s a tribute to general practice that general practice has got this.’
‘We are jacks of a lot of trades, and masters of a few. But when push comes to shove we can turn or hands to many things.’
In a tribute Magpas medical director Dr Simon Lewis said: ‘Peter has helped to make a crucial difference for patients in life threatening emergencies in the East of England and beyond”.
Neil Clarke, unit manager of Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance said: ‘For over 17 years Dr Peter Holden has given voluntary service to the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance. To have such excellent care for our charity in a voluntary capacity is invaluable. He’s a dedicated doctor who truly deserves such an accolade.’
