A service, part of a joint venture between the London ambulance service, the London Air ambulance service and Barts Health NHS trust, which is a merge of `Barts’ and the `London NHS Trust’ and is also the largest NHS trust in the UK, is proving to be an extremely helpful and time-saving resource.  The Physician Response Unit (PRU) is a service which in the words of Dr. Tony Joy, a consultant in emergency medicine “…take the emergency department to the patient.” They respond to 999 calls and bring life-saving equipment normally found in hospitals to the affected subject and use it to help them.

It was introduced to reduce the number of patients in hospitals and allow ambulances to respond to other, more urgent calls while still giving expert treatment.  As well as that, patients can rest at home because of the fact of them being treated at their location nulls the point of them being taken to a hospital. This is beneficial in many ways for the patient; more time can be spent with their families, being more comfortable in the atmosphere of their home, having close moral support. The list goes on.

An example of the PRU’s usefulness in action was when 70-year-old Joshua Adeleke was suffering from an extremely dangerous septic infection. Using the PRU’s advanced equipment and the many types of medicine they carried, they were able to save him using antibiotics and changing his blood pressure medication to ensure he stayed in a healthy condition. Mr. Adeleke stated “Fantastic. I really appreciated that I didn’t have to go to hospital.” Needless to say, this venture has helped many people and will go on to help many others.

Muhammed Daud Patel