Paul Gowens
BASICS Scotland are delighted to announce Paul Gowens as our keynote speaker at this year’s Annual Conference!
With over twenty-eight years’ experience within a national ambulance, Paul has fulfilled a number of key roles from an operational paramedic through to current strategic leadership roles. Most recently as professional advisor at Scottish Government for EMS in Zambia Central Providence. Previously within the Scottish Ambulance Service, he operated as Lead Consultant Paramedic the most senior paramedic in the service and Programme Director for Clinical Services Transformation. Paul has strategic experience at both national and UK level as Vice Chair of The College of Paramedics, and also with the Allied Health Professionals Federation Scotland Board, the British Association of Immediate Medical Care Schemes (Scotland), the Scottish Trauma Audit Group, The Scottish Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Steering Group and the Scottish Trauma Network Steering, Core and Pre-Hospital Groups. Also as a graduate from the Winterbourne Gunner Gold Commander course he acts as “Gold” for the Scottish Ambulance Service for events such a European Games and the Stockline Plastics Major Incident.
Paul holds an Executive Diploma in Management from the Chartered Management Institute, a Certificate in Business Risk Management from the Institute of Risk Management Australia and a Graduate Certificate in Implementing Clinical Governance from Caledonian University, as well as the Diploma in Immediate Medical Care from the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh. Paul has been fortunate enough to complete the Scottish Executive Scottish Leadership Foundation “Change through People Programme” and subsequently undertook the Scottish Government strategic leadership programme “Delivering the Future” a Scottish Patient Safety Programme Fellow as well as a Generation Q Leadership Fellow with the Health Foundation gaining a MSc in Leadership (Quality Improvement in Cardiac Arrest). Currently he is a PhD student at Monash University, Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice as well as undergoing recruitment selection for the Royal Auxiliary Air Force.
Enthusiastic and highly regarded by peers, and across the wider clinical community, he is often requested as an invited speaker internationally and has published in a number of recognised journals. He was previously seconded to Scottish Government Health & Social Care Directorates as a Senior Clinical Advisor, Healthcare Quality and Strategy Unit, Person Centred and Quality Team and was recipient of the Queens Ambulance Medal in the 2019 New Year’s Honours.
Tim Leeuwenburg
Dr Tim is a rural generalist from Kangaroo Island, Australia. In common with many clinicians in rural Australia, his work encompasses primary care, emergency and inpatient medicine, and anaesthesia. He is a course Director for ATLS-EMST and ETMcourse, as well as hosting bespoke airway workshops in Australia and overseas.
Tim is also a member of South Australia’s Rural Emergency Responder Network, providing on scene support to ambulance for prehospital incidents, which is important given the considerable distances in Australia and the inevitable lag until retrieval services arrive. He’s an active user of social media and FOAMed to bring ‘quality care, out there’ – see his talks at smacc conference, the blog at KIdocs.org or follow him on twitter @KangarooBeach.
Jon McCormack
Jon is a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh. He graduated from Dundee University in 1998 before completing his Anaesthetic training in South East Scotland and a Paediatric Anaesthetic Fellowship in Vancouver.
He is a Clinical Lead for Paediatric Trauma in the South-East Scotland Trauma Network and a member of the Scottish Trauma Network Paediatric Core Group and the national Mass Casualty-Major Incident planning group.
Jon is also the Deputy Lead Examiner for the Diploma in Retrieval and Transfer Medicine (RCSEd) and is on the EMRS organising committee of the annual Retrieval Conference. His three children, generally keep him busy out of work but whenever time allows Jon is a keen cyclist and whenever snow allows, a very keen skier.
Martin Esposito
Martin is a paramedic and is currently the Clinical Effectiveness Lead for Major Trauma for the Scottish Ambulance Service. He has worked within ambulance services in the UK for over 20 years gaining a wealth of experience in a variety of roles.
Since qualifying as a paramedic in 2000 he has worked as an Emergency Care Practitioner, was seconded to the Physician Response Unit based at the Royal London Hospital as well spending time as a flight paramedic for London’s Air Ambulance. He played an integral role in the establishment of Scotland’s trauma desk in 2012 and as part of his current role is clinical lead for the trauma desk. As part of the development of the Scottish Trauma Network, Martin has led the roll out of the Major Trauma Triage Tool. He has also spent a number of years in education and is an examiner for the Diploma in Immediate Care.
In addition to trauma, Martin has a special interest in pain management and passionate about improving pre-hospital pain management.
Karen Shields
Karen is currently the Acting Specialist Services Manager with SAS. Within this role she has responsibility for the specialist services desk, trauma desk and Alternative Response desk within the Scottish Ambulance Service Control Centres(ACC).
As part of the ACC senior management team Karen has a strategic overview of service response, engagement and improvement works, both within her specialist field and the wider ACC.
Dawn Hewat
Dawn is an Advanced Practitioner in Critical Care trainee, recently appointed as part of Scotland’s Major Trauma Network. Dawn is based in Edinburgh, splitting her time between the Scottish Ambulance Service, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Emergency Department and their pre-hospital trauma team – Medic 1. Previous roles have included advanced practice in primary care and paramedic for 12 years, including time with the 3Ru cardiac arrest team.
Dawn teaches regularly with BASICS Scotland on their adult & paediatric courses. Outside work, Dawn has a passion for cycling and running, as well as whisky, wine & gin, all the necessary requirements to enable her to cope with Dave!
Zoë Smeed
Zoë is an Emergency Medicine and Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine Consultant. She works as a Consultant for the Emergency Medicine Retrieval Service in Glasgow, in addition to working as a Doctor and Supervisor for East Anglian Air Ambulance Service. She has been a BASICS Scotland Instructor since 2014, and is also the Scottish Representative for the Faculty of Pre-hospital Care. She additionally enjoys working as a sports and event doctor covering motorsport, ice-hockey and outdoor events, including working at both the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and London 2012 Olympic Games. Zoë has also enjoyed working for a variety of pre-hospital and retrieval services including both Magpas Air Ambulance (in East Anglia) and MedSTAR Retrieval Service (in Adelaide, Australia). She also has experience working in Johannesburg, Nepal and Norway.
In her free time Zoë enjoys working out at the gym, participating in outdoor sporting activities, drinking whisky and travelling. Her favourite travel destination to date is Norway, and she is looking forward to planning her next travelling adventure.
Iain Craighead
Iain is a GP and BASICS Scotland Responder based in Dingwall and part of the Highland PICT team based in Inverness. He is currently involved in a trial of working alongside paramedic practitioners in general practice.
At the time of writing, Iain is a doctor with Ross County Football Club and achieved automatic relegation in his first full season ‘in charge’.
Steven Gorman
I started in the Ambulance Control Centre in 2003 and promoted into the Area Service Manager role in 2011. During this time I have undertaken Technician training to develop my clinical skills and also attended a Silver Command course to provide me with the skills for incident management and joint decision making through inter-agency working. Through my interest of the impact traumatic events have on healthcare professionals I have also recently become a Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) Practitioner to help me further support the frontline teams.
I currently manage the Caithness and Sutherland area and am an advocate for BASICS Scotland and the Sandpiper Trust as I appreciate the commitment of the volunteers in providing pre-hospital care and assistance to the Scottish Ambulance Service so much so I became involved with Dr Luke Regan in the development of the Pre-hospital Immediate Care and Trauma Team response car in Inverness.
I am keen to ensure the communities and visitors of the Highlands can receive pre-hospital emergency care when and wherever they need it.
Ben Price
Ben is a GP in Perthshire having previously worked in remote and rural general practice in Speyside and NHS Highland. He has particular interests in promoting rural GP and the role of the generalist as well as pre-hospital urgent and emergency care. He is a BASICS Responder and regularly teaches with BASICS Scotland on adult and paediatric courses.
When not working he is usually to be found enjoying the outdoors; running, cycling or just exploring and seeing his family grow up.
Luke Regan
Luke is a consultant in Emergency Medicine working at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. He is the clinical lead for the Inverness-based Pre-hospital Immediate Care and Trauma team (PICT) and the co-incidentally also Inverness-based Undergraduate Pre-hospital Care Course. He has current research projects in Pre-Hospital ultrasound and the pre-hospital treatment of sepsis.
His wife Claire is a geriatrician and forms the major part of his retirement care plans.
Andrew Ronald
I have been a Consultant Anaesthetist and Cardiac Intensivist in Aberdeen since 1994 and a BASICS Sandpiper Responder since 2007. Earlier this year I was appointed as a Consultant with the new ScotSTAR / EMRS North service based in Aberdeen and am the current Chair of BASICS Grampian. I am an instructor for prehospital, trauma and major incident courses with BASICS Scotland, the Advanced Life Support Group and the European Resus Council.
In recent years I have become increasingly interested in how we support hospital staff and prehospital responders who are exposed to psychological trauma in the course of their work and have undergone both Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) and Lifelines Scotland training. I am currently the TRiM Coordinator and one of the TRiM Managers and Practitioners for the TRiM network which we are developing within NHS Grampian and the North of Scotland Trauma Network to support staff.
Outwith work I am a keen, proud but rather slow Fat Lad at the Back cyclist and an occasional kayaker. I am an Expedition Assessor for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and despite living over 300 miles away, a supporter of Wigan Warriors Rugby League club.
Duncan Tripp
Duncan spent 35 years in the RAF in various roles mainly as a Winchman Paramedic on the UK SAR Force. During this time he was a Qualified Helicopter Crewman Instructor and Winchman Training Officer responsible for the training and standards of UK SAR Winchman both in their operational and medical roles. As a member of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service he took part in various worldwide expeditions, some as Medical Director or Expedition Leader. He has a long standing involvement with BASICs going back to 1996.
Duncan is a BASICS Instructor, Responder and a member of the Clinical Governance Working Group. He is married to a very tolerant and forgiving wife.
David Strachan
Dave started working in pre hospital care in 2006 as an event medic and member of Tayside Mountain Rescue. When he finally graduated from Dundee in 2014 he had spent just enough of the intervening years not having fun in the hills to actually qualify as a Doctor. Currently a Captain in Royal Army Medical Corps, he now holds diplomas in Leadership, the Management of Conflict and Catastrophe and Immediate Medical Care. He has climbed and led expeditions on 5 continents and spent most of the past few years deployed on operational tours and military exercises around the world.
At home in Pitlochry, Dave can be found responding for BASICS, playing ‘hide and seek’ with the rescue team or running (slowly) around the hills looking for things to climb.
John Pritchard
John Pritchard is a paramedic based in Crieff. As well as being Treasurer for BASICS Scotland, John is currently seconded to Helimed 76, Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) crew as Paramedic Lead. He is an active BASICS Scotland instructor on PHEC, PHPLS and IMC courses. A BASICS Scotland Responder, Regional Rep for the West of Scotland and a member of the College of Paramedics.
Outside of work, John enjoys running, hill walking, rugby and can often be found on Loch Earn in his boat.