Dr Mark Bloch obituary

The recent passing of Mark Bloch represents a great loss, primarily to his family and friends, but also to those who work each day to develop pre-hospital care. Mark was a tireless advocate for paramedics and the development of paramedic practice. He played a key role in creating the critical care paramedic (CCP) programme and was highly regarded as an educator and mentor.

It is unlikely, without Mark's considerable help, that the CCP programme, in particular, could have been developed. When the idea was first mooted, Mark was working as a consultant anaesthetist specialising in paediatric anaesthesia at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He was a busy man, very active clinically and also committing much time in respect of clinical simulation teaching in particular, but also in other areas such as research.

When approached to help with a new, complex and speculative project he could easily have declined to help, but he was a generous man and also had a particularly good understanding of the out-of-hospital environment, having grown up in Zimbabwe and gained considerable clinical experience both in that country and later in South Africa. He gave up much of his time to help with developing the initial bid, which was a successful venture teaming his institution, Imperial College, with the paramedic team at the University of Hertfordshire.