Peter Baskett

Peter John Firth Baskett (26 July 1934 – 18 April 2008) was a Northern Irish physician, specializing in anaesthesia. He was responsible for the introduction of paramedics into the United Kingdom, created specialist ambulances for delivering on-scene pain relief to patients, and was the first chairman of the European Resuscitation Council.

Baskett was born in Northern Ireland on 26 July 1934. His father, Sir Ronald Gilbert Baskett, was professor and Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Queen's University, Belfast and Peter was brought up on a 1000 acre research farm in Hillsborough, County Down. He attended Belfast Royal Academy and Campbell College, Belfast. He then studied medicine at Queens' College, Cambridge, for his pre-clinical studies, then finished his degree at Queen's University, Belfast, where he graduated with MB BCh BAO in 1958.

He did his house jobs at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast which included some time in Accident & Emergency medicine. An opportunity then arose for him to spend a spell as a Lecturer in physiology. He took this on and also worked as a locum in general practice both in rural practices as well as in Belfast.

He then began to explore the possibility of specialising in anaesthesia. He had watched anaesthetists at work and had administered the mandatory anaesthetics as a medical student. He approached the late Professor John Dundee who appointed him to a post in his department. Baskett then travelled to London but, instead of doing the surgical primary fellowship as had been his original intention, he sat the anaesthetic primary fellowship going on to acquire the fellowship of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons (FFARCS) in 1963.

In Belfast, he had a wide experience in many aspects of medicine, including general medicine, the early days of cardiac surgery and early intensive care. In particular, he became involved with the management of tetanus which in the rural areas was not uncommon. All of this work, however, was somewhat run-of-the- mill and he felt the need for a more academic environment. His search for a post offering a wider scope for his interests led him, in 1962, to Bristol where he was appointed registrar. In 1964, he became a senior registrar and in 1966 he was appointed consultant anaesthetist to the Bristol group of hospitals. Later that year, his friend and colleague (John Zorab) was also appointed consultant and thus began a friendship, professional and personal, that lasted until the death of John Zorab in 2006. They devised a "primary FFA course" calling on the teaching skills of many of the consultants in the Bristol area. Several years later this gave rise to a joint course with the College of Medicine in the University of Wales in Cardiff and, later still to a final FFA course.

However, while all this was going on, Baskett had turned his mind to the practical aspects of providing a resuscitation service within the hospital. At the beginning, he arranged for a resuscitation box to be located on every acute ward. This was a simple cardboard box strapped to a board - the intention being that the board could be placed under the patient's back to make external cardiac massage more effective. The boxes were located in the entrance lobby to each of the main wards. A few defibrillators were located within 'running distance' of each acute ward. 'Bleeps' had just been introduced and Baskett soon introduced the concept of a 'Resuscitation Registrar' and a hospital-wide emergency telephone number.

Baskett had, for some time, had a major interest in the use of Entonox (premixed nitrous oxide and oxygen) in pain relief. This was a major innovation. This step marked what was probably the beginning of Baskett's most important contribution to healthcare: the provision of prehospital care by specially trained ambulance personnel. Nurses and physiotherapists had been using Entonox for some years but by equipping ambulance personnel to use it, a potent form of pain relief would be available to those who were always the first on scene. Baskett approached the Chief Ambulance Officer for the Gloucestershire Ambulance Brigade, Alan Withnell.

The ambulance personnel welcomed with open arms the idea that they might be able to provide rather more than the first aid to the patients who came under their care. Baskett approached the British Oxygen Company (BOC), who were supportive and agreed to make Entonox apparatus available for training. A regular programme of training sessions began at Frenchay hospital and after a reasonable number of individuals had been trained, a pilot study was run by the Gloucestershire Ambulance Service in which ambulances were crewed by a driver and one of the new, highly trained ambulance men. The results of this trial were published in 1970. The training sessions for ambulance personnel were very time consuming and another solution had to be found. At that time many educationalists were exploring the potential for using audio-tape combined with slides as a learning medium. With funding from BOC, a tape/slide programme was made by Baskett, John Zorab and Alan Withnell. This was a great help as several copies of the "pack" were made and they could be shown in any ambulance station in the country. So the number of trained personnel began to increase and it was not long before other ambulance services joined in. Some years later, the programme received government backing and was commended to all ambulances services in the United Kingdom (UK). Baskett's idea brought on-scene pain relief to thousands of patients every year.