Information for Visiting Doctors and Paramedics
Updated for 2010
Introduction
I hope the contents of these pages will answer some of the questions you may have about being a motorsport Medical Officer or Paramedic on the Isle of Man TT Course.
Dr Heike Romer is the Chief Medical Officer for the TT and MGP races and Dr David B. Stevens MBE is the Medical Director for both events
Even if you have been a Medical Officer or Paramedic before you might find the information for 2010 of interest!!
The questions answered are as follows:-
- Can any Doctor or Paramedic help on the TT Course?
- Do I need immediate care qualifications?
- How do I get to the Isle of Man?
- Do I need personal transport on the Island?
- Is there any Accommodation available?
- What is the format of Practices and Races?
- Do I get paid expenses for acting as a doctor or paramedic?
- What am I expected to do in the event of an incident?
- Do I need to bring any equipment?
- Other Motorsport events requiring medics.
- What happens now?
In order to act as a Medical Officer (MO) on the Isle of Man TT Course a doctor needs to have FULL registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) and [as of November 2008] have a current GMC licence to practice. They must also NOT be restricted by the GMC, to working within an APS [ Approved Practice Setting ]. If you are a doctor from the UK mainland then your base hospital "Crown Indemnity" does not cover you for working at motorsport events and you must have separate appropriate medical malpractice indemnity. However since January 2007, if you are a hospital 'Junior Doctor' then you are covered at ACU events by the same medical malpractice insurance arrangements that have been in place for state registered paramedics since 2005. If you wish to officiate as a Paramedic (P) then you need to be a State Registered Paramedic with the HPC (Health Professions Council). REMEMBER this cover is in place only for ACU or MSA regulated events so if you are covering other motorsport, horse or donkey racing etc then you will need to join an organisation that offers insurance covering medical malpractice such as the Medical Indemnity Register Not surprisingly it helps if you have experience of pre-hospital immediate care especially basic first aid and resuscitation etc. Current "Duty of Care" considerations would require you to be competent in dealing with somebody who has come off a bike at high speed. You will be helped by marshals with years of experience and fully equipped helicopter ambulances, the FIV (fast intervention vehicles!!) with a response time from alert to incident of about 5 minutes (the Uranium 5 minutes is a TT Course addition to the Platinum 10 or the Golden Hour!). Whilst additional qualifications and experience are to your advantage they are not, at the moment, a requirement to be an MO or P at TT Course events. It is recommended that you read the BMA's Guidelines entitled "Doctor's providing medical care at Sporting Events". A copy is available by post from MOTORSPORT MEDICAL SERVICES. For some unknown reason, it is only available to BMA members so you will need your User Name and Password once the link below has been opened. This was considerably updated on 14th January 2009 and now runs to 21 pages!! The document should be read by all doctors involved in sporting events. If you would like to know more about the unique practical aspect of TT course immediate care then on the first Sundays, at the beginning of TT and MGP practice weeks, there are training sessions held at St. John Ambulance HQ on Glencrutchery Road in Douglas. They cover management of a TT Course incident including basic resuscitation, removal of helmets, cervical splint application, use of scoop stretchers and red head rests, log rolling, flag training and a visit to the TT grandstand control tower to show how the races are run. Also on the rugby field opposite St John HQ, where the rescue helicopters are kept, there will be one session covering the procedure for helicopter safety and casualty loading. The TTMA also run Incident Management Courses for Marshals during the winter months. For further details see www.iomttma.com To be a medic on the TT course you also need to be medically fit with normal eyesight and hearing; preferably with 2 working legs and no angina as you may have to run a fair distance to an incident and then help carry the casualty on a scoop stretcher to the Helicopter. Whingeing about a bad back generates little sympathy and in this situation does not count as an industrial injury!!!! There are regular daily sailings from Heysham, near Morecambe, to the Isle of Man. The crossing takes about 4 hours and the ship will accommodate bikes, cars and vans. There are also SeaCat sailings (2 and a half hours) from Liverpool, Belfast and Dublin. Further details are available from the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company by phoning 01624 661661 or visit www.steam-packet.com. I have very little influence with the Steam Packet on the booking of specific sailings even for Doctors or Paramedics officiating at the TT races, so please do not moan to me that you cannot get a sailing off the Island for 6 days after the last race. I KNOW the problem!!
HOWEVER for 2010, if you are having problems getting sailings to maximise use of your available holiday time then contact Dr David Stevens direct and he may be able to help.
On a set date in March when the payment deadline for TT bookings arrives, extra spaces on the ferries become available at which time you can change any inconvenient provisional bookings or make your first. There is no waiting list for these sailings, so you have to take your chance when the vacancies come on line - first come first served. Everybody drifts into the Island over the TT fortnight but everyone wants to leave immediately after the last race on Friday - all 14,000 bikes and 40,000+ spectators!! TT is always a difficult time to travel and if you are trying to come over then you need to make your bookings yesterday. For those doctors and paramedics attending the TT AND the MGP there is a refund system in place from the Steam Packet Company of up to £100. For those medics only attending the MGP there will be a contribution towards your travel expenses. Aer Arann fly to and from Dublin and London City. Details on 0800 5872324 or www.aerann.com Flybe fly to and from Birmingham, London Gatwick and Luton, Liverpool, Manchester, Newquay and Southampton - Details on 01392 268529 or www.flybe.com. Loganair fly to and from Glasgow and Edinburgh - Details on 08708 509 850 or www.loganair.co.uk
Manx2 fly to and from Belfast International and City, Blackpool, Gloucester [M5], Leeds Bradford, East Midlands and Jersey - details on 0871 2000440. www.manx2.com
With the TT course length of nearly 40 miles you would be unable to get to different locations. There is no provision of organised transport around the course prior to practice sessions or on race days and therefore some type of "wheels" is fairly essential. If you have NO transport then it will be necessary to put you at a location within walking distance of where you are staying for all the practice sessions and race days for which you are available. Public transport is too erratic and the traffic too chaotic to be reliable. I can also arrange for you to be dropped off at certain locations by the St John Ambulances when they leave their HQ on Glencrutchery Road to go to Ballacraine and May Hill and the Bungalow during practices. If there are a few Paramedics or Doctors travelling together and staying in the same accommodation or near to each other then usually they all meet up at Heysham or Liverpool and travel over in one car. I can then arrange for them to be situated at adjacent close points on the TT course so that the one vehicle can drop off people at different points and then collect them at the end of the practice session or race day. Car hire on the Island is limited during the TT period and motorcycle hire is, not surprisingly, unavailable !! Most of the Hotel/B & B accommodation for TT fortnight are booked already. Accommodation for the MGP is usually more readily available. Enquiries should be made to the Department of Tourism and Leisure who will send you a full accommodation guide. If you want to try the Department of Tourism's own "Home Stay" scheme and other accommodation availability. then click on the link below and put your date of arrival, nights required, beds etc and you wil be shown what is avialble so you can contact the accommodation direct. There is no point ringing the homestay scheme number as they will only refer you to the link below http://www.visitisleofman.com/accommodation/isle-of-man-hotels.aspx If you are really really stuck contact Dr. David Stevens dbs@mms.org.im and he will see if he can help...BUT only after you have tried all avenues as I do not operate an accommodation agency but may be able to help in extreme cases of need. Nobles Hospital has no spare accommodation! . For further info about the TT, visit www.iomtt.com. The first of 6 practice sessions will be Saturday evening 29th May 2010. Roads close for evening practice sessions on the Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 1800hrs and re-open no later than 2130hrs. There is NO practice session on the Thursday afternoon and there are NO early morning practice sessions any more. TT Saturday Races - 5th June For further info about the MGP, visit www.iommgp.com. Following her successful debut as CMO in 2008 and again in 2009, Dr Heike Romer will again be Chief Medical Officer for the Manx Grand Prix races. Dr David Stevens MBE will remain as Medical Director organising the medical services prior to the event. The first evening practice is held on Saturday 21st August and also the following Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Friday and Saturday evenings with roads closed1800 to 2030hrs. There are NO early morning practice nor Thursday afternoon sessions any more. MGP Bank Holiday Monday Races [TBC ] - MGP Wednesday Races [ TBC ]- MGP Friday Races [ TBC ] - The overall budget at the TT and the MGP are fixed and therefore the final "expenses" paid will depend on how many doctors and paramedics officiate at the events. The TT contribution towards expenses in 2009 was, as in 2008, arranged through ACU Events Ltd, the TT organisers. For the MGP the expences are paid by the Manx Motor Cycle Club Ltd. In 2009 they were £65 per practice session ( £60 in '08, £55 in '08, £28 in '06, £30 in '05, £40 in '04, £45 in '03, £40 in '02, £30 in '00, £20 in '99, £35 in '98) and £170 per race day ( £160 in '08, £120 in '07, £76 in '06, £100 in '05, £100 in '04, £100 in '03, £90 in'02, £70 in '00, £70 in '99, £70 in '98). The more Doctors and Paramedics that attend each of the events, the less everyone receives and vice-versa. So in 2009 if you had covered all practices [ One session was lost ] and all the race days at the MGP, you received £900 as expenses. [ £840 in 2008, £690 in 2007, £424 in 2006 ] I cannot offer any individual financial help towards travelling [ EXCEPT for the MGP] or accommodation costs and "yes" I do know that it is a long way from Australia! I realise the expenses do not fully cover your travel, accommodation etc. and for some even the cost of your beer money isn't covered but "every little helps". Don't forget that being on the Isle of Man, "The Road Racing Capital of the World" more than makes up for the low level of remuneration or so I am told!! When an incident occurs the marshal who has been allocated to look after TETRA radio or course phone will immediately contact race control at the TT Grandstand either on the dedicated emergency number or, very much more likely these days, by pressing the TETRA radio emergency button which shows in control the exact location of the incident. The nearest travelling marshal will then be sent to the scene of the incident and one of the two helicopters will be mobilised. The rest of the team of marshals at each location will have been allocated incident management tasks, depending on the number of people available:- using the fire extinguisher, removing the bike, clearing debris from the road and of course the Doctor or Paramedic will look after the casualty with additional help from marshals as and when they are available. LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP. YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY IS OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE. Instructions on the immediate care of a casualty are given in the 2009 TT Course Incident Management GREEN Book. The 2010 edition will be sent to you prior to the event, but if you would like a 2009 copy in advance to peruse then please phone 01624 628999 or e-mail dbs@mms.org.im. We will also send you a copy of the TT Marshals Instructional DVD which gives an overview on dealing with a TT course incident. The GREEN Book also tells you the "do's and don'ts" for doctors and paramedics and will be able to answer most of the questions you have regarding the immediate care of a casualty on the TT course, including details of the equipment available. Full details of the contents are given on this website and in the incident management Green Book, which you will be sent prior to the event. If you would prefer to bring your own kit then that is not a problem, but it does increase the amount of luggage you have to bring across to the Island. New for 2010 in the cases will be a 36" SAM Splint. For more details see http://sammedical.com/sam_splint.html In line with MSA blue book rules there are no drugs of any description in the case. HOWEVER new for 2009, Motorsport Medical Services can now supply each doctor and paramedic personally, with a small zipped pouch containg 2 vials of morphine 10mgs, 2 vials of metoclopramide 10mgs and one vial of Naloxone 400micrgms. This is done on a named person basis with supplies being counted back meticulously! Bear in mind also, the response time for the helicopter is only about 5 minutes and it is equipped with just about all the pre-hospital immediate care drugs known to man! (Sorry... and woman). You will need to bring your own clothing and waterproof gear. You will also be required when out on the course to wear a yellow 'DOCTOR' or 'PARAMEDIC' tabard, which will be supplied to you. Because it is yellow, you must NOT stand in a spot where a competitor could mistake you for a flag signal. 2010 Motorcycle Road Racing on the Billown Course Organised by Southern 100 Motorcycle Racing Ltd, To be a doctor or paramedic contact Dr David B. Stevens MBE, the Chief Medical Officer. If you are coming over for the TT races you will be sent an availability form anyway for the Southern 100 course events held during TT fortnight. There will be a contribution paid towards your expenses. Pre-TT Classic Racing - Practices on Friday evening 28th May and Saturday afternoon 29th May with racing on Monday morning and afternoon 31st May which is a bank holiday Manx Telecom Post TT Races - Saturday 12th June 2010 Southern 100 Races - Monday to Thursday, 12th - 15th July 2010 2010 Car Rally Events Paramedics for MSA [Motor Sports Association] events will need to be registered as paramedics with the MSA. Manx Telecom National Rally Rally Isle of Man - www.mir.co.im 2010 Manx Motor Racing Club's 3 Hills Challenge Thursday 22nd April to Saturday 24th April 2010 - A Sprint in Douglas on the Thursday and Hill climbs at the Sloc and Lhergy Frissell for old and modern cars on the Friday and Saturday. Contact DBS if you need more information. 01624 628999 If, after reading this lot, you still have any queries, then by all means give me a call on my Mobile number 07624 493 403 or on my office line 01624 628999 which is also a Fax line and answerphone If you want to participate as a doctor or paramedic at the TT or MGP races in "The Road Racing Capital of the World", then download the application form below and return it to me or contact me and I will send you one with a full information pack. Providing you comply with the requirements laid down above, then your offer to be a medic at the TT Races and/or Manx Grand Prix is accepted when I receive the form. I realise that with holiday and duty rotas etc. you might not be able to complete the form for some time but please return it before the end of April 2010. An availability form for Manx Grand Prix practice sessions and race days will be sent to you in June 2010. REMEMBER: Please make your travelling and accommodation arrangements for TT Course events as soon as you can especially if travelling over for the TT (see Question 3). Click here to download the TT Course 2010 Registration Form in Adobe PDF format which you can print this out and return it by post. Click here to download the TT Course 2010 Registration Form in Microsoft Word format which you can fill out on your computer and return by e-mail. Dr David B. Stevens, MBE1. Can any Doctor or Paramedic help on the TT Course?
DOCTORS
They also need full medical malpractice indemnity for prehospital immediate care activities i.e. outside Hospital or General Practice. PARAMEDICS
If you are a State Registered Paramedic and not part of a contract between Isle of Man MOTORSPORT MEDICAL SERVICES and your own ambulance authority i.e. you are offering your services as a private individual, then from January 2005 the ACU's insurers provide insurance against medical malpractice as part of the normally required event insurance. This also applies from January 2007 to 'Junior Doctors' but not Hospital Consultants or General Practitioners.
This is the first time a motorcycle sport organisation has been able to secure this protection. The regulatory body for 4 wheeled sport, the MSA, is also providing this unique insurance cover for individual paramedics and 'Junior Doctors'.2. Do I need immediate care qualifications eg ATLS, PHEC, PHTLS etc??
http://www.bma.org.uk/health_promotion_ethics/sports_exercise/doctorsportingevents.jsp3. How do I get to the Isle of Man?
BY SEABY AIR
4. Do I need personal transport on the Island?
Although there is long term car parking at UK Airports and also at Heysham and Liverpool docks, travelling as a foot passenger by sea or by air means you will be rather isolated once you arrive on the Island. 5. Is there any accommodation available?
Tel - 01624 686766. The guide also includes all the tourist type details about the Isle of Man, especially useful if you want to pack your partner and the kids off elsewhere on the island while you act as a medic out on the TT Course!!6. What is the format of practices and races for TT Course events?
2010 International TT Races
The roads reopen when the car bearing the "ROADS OPEN" plates passes. 
1200 hrs Superbike TT race [6laps]
1500 hrs Sidecar TT Race 1 [3 laps]
TT Monday Races - 7th June
1045 hrs Supersport TT Race 1 (4 laps).
1415 hrs Superstock TT Race [4 laps]
TT Wednesday Races - 9th June
1045 hrs Supersport TT Race 2 [4 laps]
1315 hrs Sidecar TT Race 2 [3 laps]
1630 hrs TT Zero clean emissions race [ 1 lap ]
TT Friday Races -11th June
Suzuki 50th Anniversay Parade Lap
TT Classic Parade Lap
1230 hrs Senior TT Race(6 laps) .2010 Manx Grand Prix Motorcycle Races
There are no sidecar races in the MGP. The race programme is as follows :-
30th Aug.
1015 Newcomers and Post Classic race (4 laps) & 1315 Jun/Ltwt Classic race (4 laps)
1st September
1015 Junior race (4 laps) & 1315 Senior Classic (4 laps)
3rd September
Lightweight/Ultralightweight race (4 laps) & Senior race (4 laps).7. Do I get paid for acting as a doctor or paramedic?
Yes...... a contribution is paid towards your "expenses" for the TT festival period.
For a practice session in 2009 this was £50 (£65 in '08, £50 in '07, £44 in '06, £40 in '05, £35 in' 04, £35 in '03, £35 in '02, £30 in '00, £25 in '99, £25 in '98, £15 in '97)
The increase in 2008 was because of fewer medics attending.
For a race day in 2009 the expenses payment was £110 per race day (£170 in '08, £90 in '07, £88 in '06, £80 in '05, £60 in '04, £50 in '03, £70 in '02, £60 in '00, £60 in '99, £50 in '98, £50 in '97].
So in 2009 if you had covered all the practices and all the race days at the TT, you received £740 as expenses. [£1,005 in 2008, £610 in 2007, £616 in 2006 ]8. What am I expected to do on the TT Course in the event of an incident?
The flagmen, situated at over 200 locations, indicate immediately to on-coming competitors, with a waved yellow flag, that there has been an incident. 9. Do I need to bring any equipment with me?
Amongst the equipment at each location to which you are allocated around the TT course there is a single orange Immediate Care case.
Common sense is required!!10. Are there other motorsport events on the Island at which I could act as a doctor or paramedic?
Ellerslie, Malew Street, Castletown, Isle of Man.
Practising and some racing is Mon to Wed evenings with racing ALL day on Thursday and a fantastic
evening presentation in Catletown Square with a firworks display finale.
Friday evening and Saturday, 7th and 8th May 2010.
To act as a doctor or paramedic contact John Skinner - 01624 626543.
This event moved a few years ago from September to August and is now held in July- Friday and Saturday, 9th and 10th July 2010.
To act as a doctor or paramedic contact Richard Bargery, the event administrator, on 01624 852440.11. What happens now
If you want to come over then you will, in due course, be sent, well before the TT or MGP, an availability form so you can indicate which practice sessions and race days you will be able to cover. Obviously your availability will be dictated by your travelling dates which should be arranged before you fill in the form. (see Question 3).
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Medical Director for the TT and MGP Races
Chief Medical Officer for S100,
Medical Director, Isle of Man Motorsport Medical Services
