In 2023, 480,000 fans attended the four days of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. These people, drivers and team members were looked after by more than 100 staff at the medical center at Silverstone.
“It effectively treats the population of a large city every day,” Peter Hutchinson, the event’s chief medical officer and a professor of neurosurgery at Cambridge University, said in an interview in June.
And as in any big city, its residents get hurt. In 2023, the center treated around 1,000 people, mostly for minor injuries requiring only first aid. And while there were no accidents on the track that required their attention last year, they became active in 2022 when Zhou Guanyu, a driver with Alfa Romeo, was involved in an accident that required him to be extricated from his car after becoming wedged. between the fence and a dam.
“It was an amazing experience how people from the medical center help you,” Zhou said in an interview. “To keep you calm and relaxed, constantly making sure you remember what happened, because that’s all that matters when you have a big crash like that.
“They checked everything, making sure I was OK, that my body had calmed down before they could release me. I have enormous respect for the people who work there because they are there to look after us, which means the world to us.”
The FIA, the sport’s governing body, requires a medical center at every Grand Prix, and the one at Silverstone will have a 123-strong team this year. In 1996, it was 40. The increase was due to increased attendance and a longer workday, with events lasting until midnight long after the track action had concluded.
“We need to have two trauma teams, one with a surgeon, one with an anesthesiologist, and we need emergency room doctors, access to a neurosurgeon, a burn surgeon, and access to x-rays and ultrasounds to evaluate patients,” Nick said. James, the deputy chief medical officer who has worked at the British Grand Prix since 1995.
“What has changed within the medical center is that, because of the crowd, we tend to have a doctor [general practitioner] or an additional emergency department physician to deal with some public matters.”
James, a consultant plastic reconstructive and cosmetic surgeon, said one reason for the staff expansion was the need for more nurses.
“They can’t work from 6 in the morning until late at night taking care of patients all the time, so we need double the number,” he said. “We can’t tire them out at the end of the day.
“Also, because the team has stuck together and works so well together, many other people involved in the rescue and safety of the drivers and the crowd have come under our wing, so a team of 40 has expanded to 123 because we have extrication crews and rescue crews as part of the team.”
The British Grand Prix takes place in July, but planning for the medical center and assembling the volunteer team begins in February.
“It’s probably a six-month process,” said Stephanie Garner, the medical team’s coordinator for the past 28 years. “We have a look at who we’re going to invite and where we’re going to go from there. That gets the ball rolling.”
“The majority of my work is done in the previous months. If I go to the event and sit down and don’t do a huge amount during it, it means I’ve done a good job.”
Hutchinson said the medical team at Silverstone was “probably the best in the world for motor racing”, tackling an event that has become “the biggest spectator sport at one venue in the UK”.
“If you look at the numbers we get on the weekend for just one venue, it’s a big liability,” Hutchinson said. “People tend to focus on us taking care of the drivers, the officials. But most of our work comes from taking care of the crowd.”
“It’s probably the best place to spend a Sunday in the UK as you’ll get the highest quality of care,” he said.
Dr. Ian Roberts, the FIA Formula 1 medical spokesman and the FIA’s chief medical officer for Formula 1, who was the chief medical officer of the British Grand Prix before Hutchinson, said there were enough medical services he would “hold as the gold standard”. .
“They would be events and services that I would recommend for CMOs [chief medical officers] and DCMO [deputy chief medical officers] who are getting ready to go and see how it’s done, and Silverstone is one of them,” he said.
At Silverstone and other circuits, there are medical staff “on the ground dealing with bumps and scrapes, so to speak,” Roberts said, before “they can escalate to a higher level of care if that’s necessary.”
Roberts said there was a “scaled response” in Silverstone involving St John Ambulance, the British Red Cross and Silverstone Medical Services before the incidents were referred to the medical centre.
“The medical center in Silverstone has a dual role,” he said. “In most cases, a medical center is clearly looking at the track. We at the FIA ensure that the track comes first, but then the spectator medical services merge into it.
“Silverstone has the regional medical services, but then you have this very central medical center that can deal with the more serious cases, and they have done that in the past, very successfully.”
Hutchinson highlighted an incident a few years ago as he started a Grand Prix.
“We had a patient on one of the rigs in cardiac arrest, which is quite difficult to manage,” he said. “They looked at me at race control and said, ‘What do you want to do? Should the games be stopped?” I said, “We’re on with the fight,” knowing that the medical team would treat the patient. He did, and the man survived.
“What we all find is that we’re often faced with quite difficult situations, a lot of situations happening at the same time,” he said. “Of course, safety is paramount. With the right people there, we can meet these challenges.”
Steven Hunter, the cardiothoracic surgeon for the event since 1997 who has looked after Zhou, said the medical team at Silverstone had developed “a camaraderie over the years” which had ensured high standards of care.
“We’ve known each other now for the better part of three decades, and the main thing is that we do this for fun,” he said.
“But there is a responsibility,” Hunter said. “It’s quite difficult at times. Every minute counts, and we really have to be on it all the time, everyone working together to deliver the event in the safest possible terms. That’s why we’re there.”
