Shepshed Clay Pigeon Shooting


Medical Services for Outdoor Shooting Events
Clay pigeon shooting, also known as clay target shooting, is the art of shooting a firearm at special flying targets, known as clay pigeons or clay targets. Its name was taken from its previous ‘Live Bird Shooting’ origin, when real birds, such as pigeons, were released and targeted, before this was made illegal in the 1920’s. The sport has evolved over the years and is now enjoyed by a wide range of ages, often from ten years upwards, at all competition levels, from novice to Olympic.

Do you need medical cover?

There are many differing forms of this sport, all with their own disciplines. However, the main objective remains the same throughout, and all require the use of a shotgun of some form to carry out the task, whether it be the more traditional, standard shotgun that contains lead shot cartridges, or a more modern disabled and adapted shotgun that ‘fires’ a laser towards a specially modified reflective clay (this is often seen as a safer alternative for beginners).

Although every care may be taken by participants and shooting grounds, who follow stringent safety precautions, this sport, as with all others will always carry potential hazards and risks that can never be fully eliminated, including the obvious dangers associated with the use of a live weapon, hearing damage, recoil injuries, and injury from falling clays. Some injuries may be minor and easily treatable, others may require urgent assessment in order to stabilise the patient and reduce further complications. In such circumstances, medical intervention at the earliest possible opportunity allows a patient the best possible chance of a full recovery. However, it is well documented that the NHS ambulance service is often working at, or above capacity, and even 999 calls cannot always be answered in a timely manner. For this reason, event safety guides now state that each event should ensure its own medical provision is in place, in order to cause as little disruption to the statutory services as possible, and this is where Medic 1 can step in to assist.

Our service

We are able to offer a bespoke service to Clay Pigeon Shooting event organisers, taking away the stress and often time consuming hard work that is involved in organising medical provision at their event. Our experienced team know just the right questions to ask to ensure an accurate initial risk assessment is undertaken, which will then allow our clinical leads to determine the correct level of resources needed. This risk assessment takes a variety of factors into account, including the venue, location in which the event is being held, the age range taking part, the skill level involved, and also the event’s demographic. With our dedicated expert team on hand, we can produce a finalised quote within a very short space of time, and all at no cost to the client.

Planning

Should you, as a client wish to proceed with that quote, we can also assist in the planning of your event by attending SAG meetings if required and by completing a finalised medical risk assessment and medical plan, to ensure your event is resourced accurately and is in line with the latest Health & Safety regulations and Purple Guide recommendations. We fully understand that plans can change; activities are often added as an event progresses and so a re-evaluation of the risk assessment may be required at some point. This is no problem at all; we will work with you in making any amendments needed to ensure that medical cover is, once again, suitable to your needs. This may result in the level of resources being altered, which may also cause an alteration to the original cost, however, this will be discussed fully with you and confirmed at the time.

Post-event

Following on from your event, we are happy to attend any debrief meetings. We also provide you with a detailed medical report, including a comprehensive (anonymised) breakdown of the number of patients treated, the types of illnesses/injuries sustained throughout your event, and also any feedback and recommendations from the team who attended. This has proved to be very useful to organisers when planning similar events in the future.

Our resources

Every member of our highly skilled team are experienced in assessing, treating and monitoring patients on site where appropriate, and also in assessing when a patient requires additional treatment at a hospital. Medic 1 cover a wide variety of events and venues and are fully trained in de-escalation and communicating with intoxicated patients. We have a variety of resources available and, depending on the outcome of your event’s risk assessment, you may be provided with, or request, any of the following:

How can we help? For more information or to request a quote please call us on 0845 00 44 999. Lines are open 09:00 to 17:30 daily.
Alternatively you can contact us at contact@medic1.co.uk or fill in the contact form.

Contact Us