ABOUT
US
WHO is ASIRUS?
Asirus was formed in 2002 by an acute asthma sufferer, Maria Murray, following a period in intensive care at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 2001. Living in rural Aberdeenshire, she became aware of the difficulties facing asthma patients in remote areas experiencing severe asthma attacks and embarked on an ongoing fact-finding initiative to identify and try to address the problems. Asirus became a recognised charity (SC 034089) in March 2003
HOW CAN ASIRUS HELP?
Asirus's objectives are to alleviate the suffering and distress of asthma patients and their families and carers in remote and rural Scotland by:
- fundraising to provide essential equipment and nebulisers
for hospital chest units
which cannot otherwise be funded - providing nebulisers for use by rural asthma patients, and those with acute respiratory diseases, where these cannot be funded by the statutory authorities
- supporting the rapid response services where their facilities
are limited in
extreme rural areas and where, in many instances, roads are only single
track with passing places.
In the event of an asthma attack in such an area, it is not only the length of time taken by an ambulance, helicopter or paramedic to reach the patient which is important, but also the length of time taken to bring the patient to a hospital. In such circumstances, possibly involving a power cut or being cut-off by heavy snow-fall and difficult to reach by the emergency services, a nebuliser which runs off a battery as well as mains electricity in the patient's home can be of critical importance.
When the ability to breathe is deteriorating,
every minute counts.
To address this we have created the Grid
Reference Identification Project – GRIP.
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Working in conjunction with the Scottish Ambulance Service and through rural health centres, Asirus is providing the information for a database of at-risk patients in isolated areas. The service is available not only to asthma sufferers but cardiacs,
diabetics, epileptics and anaphylactics as well as patients whose other medical conditions
render them vulnerable. It enhances the sophisticated
technology already used by the Scottish Ambulance Service's Emergency medical
Dispatch Centres, ensuring that the service to the patient is faster, more
efficient and better informed.
GRIP has been described in the Press as "a life saving device with great potential and “ … a simple, and yet vital, service”. |
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