MET Medical will be back exhibiting at the Showman’s Show this year. MET Medical provides medical cover at a wide range of events from county shows to major music festivals and sporting events.

The company’s key strength lies in the quality of its workforce—a large team of qualified, full-time employees who are continuously trained and developed. The company’s diverse operations facilitate this, providing both NHS services such as 999 ambulance responses and private healthcare in various settings.

MET Medical recently launched a new private urgent care service where members of the public can call and get an urgent response to a medical issue at home. The service provides referrals to consultants, referrals for imaging or scans, stitches, prescriptions and even blood and urine tests. Over the summer MET integrated some of the development from Urgent Care back into many of the UK’s leading music festivals, where patients were issued electronic prescriptions, onsite blood tests were completed with state-of-the-art analysis and some patients were conveyed to private hospitals instead of NHS hospitals, all reducing the impact on the NHS.

1 in 6 people now have health insurance and the numbers are growing. Many others are opting to self-pay for all or part of their care in order to avoid waiting lists of years. Faced with growing demand on primary care and long wait times for both planned and emergency care a large proportion of those with private health insurance will be considering how to navigate an alternative to the NHS when falling unwell at an event.

MET Medical remains the only private ambulance service in the UK with pre-agreed direct referral pathways for even ambulatory patients into some of the UK’s leading private hospitals which deliver inpatient care including access to a network of over 140 private intensive care beds.

MET Medical also offers a concierge service at events for artists, crew and VIPs on a pay per use or pre-paid basis. This includes the delivery of private healthcare services some of which can often be reclaimed with health insurance and even vitamin and hydration infusions which are becoming a regular appearance on artist riders.

In June the government launched a consultation recognising the impact of the Manchester Arena Bombing and numerous patient harm incidents which occurred at events due to unregulated providers. The consultation was to remove the exemptions which allow nurses, doctors and paramedics to work at events and stadiums without being regulated by the Care Quality Commission. MET Medical will be supporting event organisers at the show in planning for changes which are expected in 2025 onwards.

For many years, MET Medical has been an advocate for a level playing field in the events sector. While the changes may impact the cost of medical cover, they are a significant step towards enhancing patient and event safety.

Visit MET Medical on stand 170, Avenue C where the team will be happy to discuss upcoming events.