The changing role of the obstetric flying squad.

Farquhar Murray (1929) outlined the concept of an obstetric flying squad when, speaking to the Edinburgh Obstetric Society he suggested that there were"....... many conditions in which, instead of rushing a shocked and collapsed patient to hospital for nursing and specialised aid, the specialist and nurse should be rushed to the patient". Consequently the Bellshill Emergency Service commenced officially in 1931 and records of the service are available from 1933. The period 1933-61 was reviewed by Liang (1963) and he concluded that "the main function of such a service is resuscitation and transfusion of the shocked and bleeding patient".