Peter Baskett

Baskett was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Resuscitation from 1997 - 2008.

As a member of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) from 1995 to 2000, Baskett developed the international guidelines on airway management during resuscitation, and healthcare professionals across the world respected his expertise on this subject. In 1994, he published one of the first studies on the use of the laryngeal mask airway for in-hospital resuscitation. In 2005, in recognition of Baskett's contributions to resuscitation the American Heart Association awarded him as a 'Resuscitation Giant'.

President of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (1990 - 1992), BASICS (1981 - 85), the United Services section of the Royal Society of Medicine (1997–99), the World Association for Emergency and Disaster Medicine (1989–93), the ERC (1989–94), the International Trauma Anaesthsia and Critical Care Society (1995–98), the Triservice Society of Anaesthetists of the South Western Region (1997–98).

In 1983, Baskett joined the Medical Section of the Territorial Army (RAMC). In 1987 he was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel and in 1992 was made Colonel and Commanding Officer of 219 Wessex Field Hospital.

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.

Frank Pantridge had established a doctor-manned prehospital coronary care service in 1967 and Douglas Chamberlain equipped ambulances in Brighton with defibrillators and trained ambulance personnel to use them. Baskett travelled extensively learning about other pre-hospital care schemes in other countries such as Germany and Denmark. Meanwhile, general practitioners (primary care doctors) with strong leadership from Kenneth Easton, were founding GP-based-schemes which, in due course, led to the foundation of the British Association for Immediate Care Schemes (BASICS). Baskett was a founder member of this organisation and was later Chairman. He was also a founder member of the Community Resuscitation Advisory Committee (CRAC). The constitution of this committee was amended in May 1984 giving rise to the Resuscitation Council (UK) - the first Resuscitation Council in Europe. Five years later, Peter was one of the Founding Members of the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and, in August 1989, at the first Executive Committee meeting of the ERC, he was elected chairman.

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.

Baskett had a long-standing interest in motor sport. In the 1950s he raced minis and was appointed as Chief Medical Officer to Castle Combe circuit in 1968, a position he held until 1995. Following his death in 2008, the Medical Centre at Castle Combe Race Circuit was re-named 'The Peter Baskett Medical Centre'.

Peter John Firth Baskett (1934–2008) 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 the 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.