SARmedic Course

Search and Rescue Medicine Course

The 2019 SARmedic course took place in Arrochar from the 5th to the 9th of November 2019.

The calibre and credibility of our teaching faculty is unparallelled. Instructors include Dr Stephen Hearns, Dr Alasdair Corfield, Ian McConnell, Chris Stirrup, Wayne Auton and Mike Henson. Stephen and Alasdair are both consultants in emergency medicine who work with Scotland’s Emergency Medical Retrieval Service. Ian and Chris are medics with Glen Coe and Lochaber mountain rescue teams, Wayne is an aeromedical retrieval paramedic and Mike is the lead paramedic winchman with the Bristow SAR helicopter based at Prestwick.

The SARmedic course is suitable for any mountain rescue team member who has completed a first aid course. Five days of teaching aim to bring candidates to the level appropriate for the Cascare assessment process.

This year’s SARmedic course incorporated a casualty care assessment on the final day.

SARmedic is unique in that it utilises the safe systems and human factors techniques employed by the world’s leading helicopter pre-hospital critical care teams. The course addresses the issues of skills atrophy and performance under pressure through the use of an extensive set of procedural checklists, optimal equipment management systems and drilling and deliberate practice of practical procedures. Techniques for controlling the pressures of treating a critically ill patient in the challenging mountain rescue environment are also covered.

SARmedic Course Programme

SARmedic Checklists

All SARmedics are provided with their own set of 30 checklists for drug administration, practical procedures, patient assessment and handover.