Ten volunteer doctors will be on call through Christmas and new year to keep residents safe and potentially save lives.
Members of BEEP Doctors (BASICS Cumbria) will be ready to drop whatever they are doing at a moment’s notice to attend often life-threatening accidents and incidents across Cumbria.
“We know that the coming weeks are a very busy period and over Christmas accidents will happen whatever the time of day or whatever day it is,” said Dr Chris Moss, co-chair of the charity, which has been operating in the county for 31 years.
So far during 2025, the BEEP Doctors have attended 172 incidents across Cumbria and members have completed 528 volunteering hours.
Cumbria’s BEEP Doctors, who are all volunteers, provide enhanced pre-hospital emergency medical care. They work closely with the police and fire services, North West Ambulance Service paramedics, the Great North Air Ambulance Service and North West Air Ambulance.
At incidents BEEP Doctors can carry out some surgical procedures, such as inserting chest drains; some can perform pre-hospital anaesthetics and all are able to administer drugs that most road crew paramedics cannot, such as ketamine/fentanyl to give pain relief and allow fracture manipulation.
Many of the emergencies they attend include road traffic collisions, farm incidents, pushbike and horse accidents and medical emergencies at home and in public places.
Dr Moss, who lives near Milnthorpe, is one of the BEEP Doctors who will be on call over the festive period.
He qualified in medicine from Newcastle University in 2011 and worked across the North East and North West for three years in anaesthetics in intensive care units.
He provided medical support at sea on cruise ships for two years and on various adventure charity trips across the world, including to Everest Base Camp.
In 2017 he co-founded and remains a director of Westmorland Homecare, which has four branches in Cumbria and Lancashire.
He joined the BEEP Doctors charity in 2021. “I think when you have these skills it is good to be able to give something back to the community,” he said.
“We have an amazing group of paramedics across Cumbria but they are stretched and it is great to be able to support and work alongside them in what can be some very complex and difficult situations.”
Dr Moss said BEEP Doctors on call received messages from the ambulance service to attend incidents where paramedics needed help and support.
“When you get a call you just have to drop everything, head out and focus on what you need to do,” he said.
“First of all, you need to get to the scene safely and while you are driving there will be some time for thought and reflection about what you might find.
“But sometimes you discover the incident is much more complicated than you had first thought and there are times when you live in a relatively small community like ours that you might know or have worked with the person involved who needs help.”
Dr Moss paid tribute to his fellow BEEP Doctors. “We are a very close-knit community. We do a lot of training together and I know that they all take the charity very seriously.
“BEEP Doctors has been operating for more than 30 years. We rely solely on donations and we do receive more donations at Christmas, which is fantastic.
“We love going out and giving talks about what we do across Cumbria and we also provide CPR training, which empowers people to look after others in the community.”
It costs about £250,000 a year to operate the BEEP Doctors service, which relies solely on public donations and receives no Government or NHS funding.
Anyone who would like more information about fundraising for the charity or would like to make a donation can email [email protected] or call 01768 809535.
