MEDICAL EMERGENCY DOCTOR SERVICE (WALES)
The Charity is also known by the more familiar title of MEDSERVE (Wales).
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 2021
REGISTERED CHARITY NO 1039032
The Trustees of the charity present their report with the financial statements of the Charity for the year ended 2021
PERIOD OF REPORT
This report is for the financial period 1[st] April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021.
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
Registered Office; 12 Cae Garw Bach, St Fagans, Cardiff, CF5 6HH Phone: 02920 716860 Email: medservewales@gmail.com
Registered Charity No. 1039032
Governing documents; the Charity is governed by a Trust Deed dated 20[th] June 1994.
OBJECTS
The objectives of the charity are; the relief of sickness by the provision of immediate medical treatment to any person in need thereof by reason of accidental injury or any medical emergency necessitating immediate on-site treatment, and
To assist and promote the efficiency of the Fire Brigade, the Police Ambulance Service and other Emergency services, statutory or otherwise.
The practical implementation of these objects is that Medserve recruit, train and supervise a group of clinical volunteers who respond to requests from the Ambulance or other emergency services to attend and provide advanced clinical decision-making and interventions at serious incidents and situations where a practitioner qualified and experienced in pre-hospital care is required.
MEDSERVE doctors are also trained in Major Incident Support and can be rapidly deployed in both Medical Support and clinical roles at a complex or major incident.
THE TRUSTEES
The Charity Trustees are Mrs Sian Guest, Mr Eric Bellew, Mr Richard Knills, Mr Andy McGann, and Mr Nigel Thomas.
As Trustees of MEDSERVE WALES, it is our job to oversee the administration of the Charity and the proper use of its resources. We do this by meeting regularly, keeping in touch with the activities of the organisation and formally reviewing and approving the Annual Accounts and Annual Report. Whenever possible, each Trustee is ready to use
his experience, skills, contacts and commitment to assist and improve the Charity so that the work of our volunteers might be supported and enhanced.
Trustees have a range of backgrounds and experience within Health, Emergency Services and the Charity sector, we are pleased to be able to support the work of MEDSERVE WALES by undertaking the Trustee’s role.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
The day to day organisation of volunteers, rotas, purchase of equipment, etc. is delegated by the Trustees to the Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. They meet regularly with volunteers, both clinical and administrative, potential volunteers and others and liaise with a range of organisations in the health service and elsewhere about the MEDSERVE Wales services. Meetings are held with volunteers as part of the on-going clinical governance arrangements.
The Trustees meet at least twice a year to review the activities of the organisation and receive reports from the officers. Trustees also attend clinical governance meetings as they wish, as well as the Annual General Meeting. This would happen during normal circumstances, during COVID restrictions this has not been possible to meet in person.
GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE
The clinical governance of the responders is managed by a Clinical Governance Lead, at present Dr Ian Bowler. The Governance lead reviews all the incidents flagged for clinical review – either voluntarily by responders or via a mandatory process for PHEA. The Governance lead also reviews and investigates any complaints and concerns regarding MEDSERVE Wales in conjunction with the Welsh Ambulance Service (WAST) concerns team, who receive all DATIX submissions concerning MEDSERVE Wales. Any serious concerns are then shared with the WAST Medical Director.
The Governance lead is also responsible for the currency of the responders and ensuring Standard Operating Procedures are kept up to date.
AREA OF OPERATION
The Charity’s volunteers primarily operate in the following local authority areas; Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea, Torfaen and the Vale of Glamorgan. Requests to attend incidents in areas in Wales other than these are always considered. ‘Cross border’ attendance of incidents is also possible, as is mutual aid at serious / major incidents.
ACTIVITIES
Medserve has 24 responders who have continued to attend serious incidents at the request of the Ambulance Service and other emergency services. Often their intervention and advanced decision making skills makes the difference to a patient’s survival or improves recovery and quality of life. A total of 461 incidents were attended, and increase over last year and were attended by 12 MEDSERVE clinicians. The ages of patients ranged from under 5 to people in their 90s. A broad spectrum of traumatic and medical incidents were attended. This shows that the objectives of the charity are being
met. This information is taken from a data request from WAST. A complete breakdown of all incidents attended is available from this organisation, should it be required.
FINANCIAL REVIEW
[The Charity has traditionally had a very small turnover of funds with a few donations from grateful members of the public and from individual health authorities, sufficient to enable the purchase of, for example, equipment and protective clothing for our volunteers.
We had 3 grants during the year, all from WCVA, one for £2k, one £8k, one £15k, all based on Covid need.
Yet again this year, we have been fortunate to secure the sponsorship from Oil4Wales who support the fuel for our responder vehicles.
EXPANSION
There has been no expansion over the last year due to the restrictions imposed by COVID.
COVID IMPLICATIONS
Our responders have had increased demand on their time from the NHS jobs which has impacted their availability to volunteer for Medserve. Responder shifts stopped for few weeks due to this situation.
PPE – In order for our responders to conduct their duties safely there was an urgent need for PPE, this took several weeks to establish supply lines and we were always last in line and not seen as a priority.
Since summer 2020 we have managed to run as normal, although every job takes longer and is more difficult with PPE.
Fundraising – COVID restrictions has meant that we have not been able to conduct our normal fundraising activities this year which had had an impact on our financial status.
PUBLIC BENEFIT
In respect of the long-standing services provide by MEDSERVE Wales, the public benefit is that there is always a level of expertise over and above the direct resources of the Ambulance and other emergency services available to attend and deal with appropriate serious incidents. Similarly, in relation to the possibility of a major accident – for instance, a rail or air crash, a motorway pile-up or any other situation where a “Major Incident” is declared – the Charity would be in a position, through its volunteers, to provide assistance, thus potentially avoiding further loss or life and providing enhanced medical care to the patients by clinical and operational and tactical management of the scene.
WIDER NETWORK
MEDSERVE Wales is affiliated to the BASICS (British Association for Immediate Care) which, inter alia, offers appropriate information and training services. We are also a Member of the Wales Council for Voluntary Action which offers similar services.
BASICS WALES
This is a new umbrella organisation that MEDSERVE is a founder member of. It aims to provide support and structure to all BASICS pre-hospital care organisations in Wales and to give a single point of contact for the Welsh Ambulance Service and other outside organisations.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
In terms of future development, the Trustees have been closely following the changes to Charity Law and are currently reviewing the Constitution of MEDSERVE WALES to ensure that the formal basis of our organisation is maintained and developed in line with best practice.
Signed on behalf of the Trustees,
103 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Receipts and pa ments accounts CC16a 114rx) 311Y21 Forthe perfod fro To Section A Receipts and payments Jnds Endowhwlt funds Tot41 fvnd Lasty•ar thtrM•rutÉ Al Reeélpts 15.691 DDnabtins Grart Funth 26. AZ Assffl •rKI InYes1mt Sub to Totrlr•c•lpts 20,•39 13,801 A3 P•YmtI Costs 192 1.741 1,219 ondgrmsts 1.012 6,747 12m3 17,rn IlJ27 A4 A55•t and Inv•stmt WEha, Isee iaN¢l Sub to S.747 12m3 11,427 13.6Q8 8.519 2,263 A5 Transkrs betw fvnds AO Gash fund¥ la•t year end 14I16 23m5 9,425 13.6 2,263 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted nd5 Restrtcted lund5 Endowment funds trn&YESt£ 81 Cash funds ni iO,f)J
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Independent examinerfs report to the trustees of Medserve Wales I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Medserve Wales (the Trust) for the year ended 31 March 2021. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the ACY). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent examiner's statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect= 1 . accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Andrew Butler ACA Taliesin Pen Y Waun Pentyrch CF15 9SJ 11th March 2022