Ambulance UK June 2022

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NEWSLINE AMBULANCE UK - JUNE SECAMB SECAmb’s tenth Make Ready Centre to open Ambulance crews and staff will begin moving into a brand-new ambulance centre in Surrey. The Make Ready Centre in The Horseshoe, Banstead, is on the site of the Trust’s former headquarters and is South East Coast Ambulance Service’s (SECAmb’s) first new-build Make Ready Centre in the county. The development boasts a fleet workshop and the Trust’s Make Ready vehicle preparation system along with modern office space and rest and wellbeing facilities for staff. SECAmb’s Make Ready Centres involve specialist teams of staff cleaning, restocking and maintaining the Trust’s fleet. SECAmb currently operates nine Make Ready Centres across its region with the Banstead centre following on from the opening of Brighton Make Ready Centre which became operational at the end of 2020. Ambulance crews currently starting and ending their shifts at Epsom, Leatherhead, Redhill, Dorking and Godstone ambulance stations will instead start and finish at the new centre. Service to the surrounding area is protected with the new centre supported by a network of Ambulance Community Response Posts (ACRP) at both existing ambulance stations and additional sites. The move brings the area in line with the system SECAmb already operated across much of its region. The response posts have suitable rest facilities for crews between calls and when on a break. As previously outlined, SECAmb has sold or is in the process of selling its Leatherhead, Redhill, Dorking and Godstone sites for redevelopment with response posts either retained on the current sites or moved to nearby locations in the towns. Many of the Trust’s older ambulance stations are outdated and not always in the best location for current patient need. Redhill ambulance station has been sold but will be retained as a response post until 2023 unless a suitable alternative is found in the town before next year. Leatherhead ambulance station has been sold and crews will move to a new response post, also in Kingston Road, later this summer. Godstone ambulance station has also been sold, subject to contract and planning permission. Crews will continue to use Godstone fire station as a response post while a search for a larger site continues and crews are due to begin using a further ACPR at Oxted fire station from the autumn. Epsom and Dorking ambulance stations remain as response posts. The Trust also has a response post at Surrey Fire and Rescue Headquarters in Reigate. Staff from Redhill Ambulance Station will move into the new centre on Monday (16 May) with their colleagues joining them in staggered moves throughout the week. SECAmb Operating Unit Manager for Gatwick & Redhill, Paul Fisher said: “It’s great that the new centre is becoming fully operational. The new premises will provide staff with a modern building and bring this part of Surrey in line with the way in which we operate across the majority of our region including the neighbouring Gatwick area. “The public should be reassured that we are protecting the service we provide to the surrounding towns by operating from response posts at existing and new sites. I would like to thank everyone involved in this exciting project which will improve the way we operate and I look forward to seeing staff make it their home over the coming weeks.” What is Make Ready? Make Ready Centres house specialist teams of staff employed to clean, restock and maintain the Trust’s fleet. • The Make Ready initiative significantly enhances and improves the service SECAmb provides to the community. • It minimises the risk of crossinfection, frees up front-line staff – who traditionally cleaned and re-stocked ambulances – to spend more time treating patients, and keeps vehicles on the road for longer. • The system ensures that specially-trained operatives regularly deep-clean, restock and check vehicles for mechanical faults. • Make Ready Centres are supported by a network of Ambulance Community Responses Posts (ACRPs) across the area. • During shifts, staff will respond from the ACRPs which will provide facilities for staff. These are located based on patient demand. • Crews are expected to continue to respond from the same towns under the system but begin and end their shifts at staggered times with a vehicle that is fully prepared for them. • The system ensures crews have access to improved training facilities and opportunities and increased support from managers. Midlands Air Ambulance Charity extends operational hours Patients in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire are already benefitting as Midlands Air Ambulance Charity’s southern critical care car is now operating into the night to meet increasing demand. The charity has changed its operational hours so that its vital lifesaving car will now run until 2am, allowing the team to attend a greater number of critical emergencies. In the first month of operation, the advanced clinical team has responded to almost 30 medical and traumatic incidents 86 For further recruitment vacancies visit: www.ambulanceukonline.com
NEWSLINE between the extended operating hours of 8pm and 2am. Seven of these call outs were to serious incidents, demonstrating the direct need for the expertise of Midlands Air Ambulance Charity’s two critical care paramedics onboard. The car was dispatched to a variety of incident types including road traffic collisions, accidental injuries, assaults and medical conditions. Previously the rapid response vehicle, based at the charity’s Strensham airbase in Worcestershire, ran between 8am and 8pm with one specialist critical care paramedic on-board. Following analysis of the times of calls where patients are in critical condition and could benefit from the advanced treatment, surgical skills, medicines and hospital-level equipment rapidly brought to scene, the service now operates its southern critical care car between 2pm and 2am with two critical care paramedics. Ian Jones, clinical operations director for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said: “We are committed to continuous improvement and delivering advanced patient care, which is why we constantly review patient data to ensure we provide the very best care to those who need it. When the research demonstrated that patients across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire would potentially benefit from our expertise outside of our current operational hours, we knew we needed to adapt. This change of operating model has enabled us to attend those critically ill or injured via our southern critical care car beyond the times our air ambulance helicopters can fly.” Since April, the charity operates its lifesaving service 19 hours per day, rapidly bringing parts of the hospital to the patient in an average of just ten minutes. The operational day starts at 7am via helicopter from RAF Cosford in Shropshire and the central critical care car (covering Birmingham and the Black Country, at 8am via helicopters at the charity’s Strensham airbase in Worcestershire and Tatenhill airbase in Staffordshire, from 10am via the northern critical care car (which covers Staffordshire and Shropshire) and at 2pm for the southern critical care car, covering Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, which is also based at Strensham. The critical care cars carry the same advanced lifesaving equipment as the helicopters, such as hospital grade ventilators and a mechanical CPR machine, known as the Lucas device and Two of Midlands Air Ambulance Charity’s critical care paramedics, Mike Andrews (L) and Steven ‘Mitch’ Mitchell (R) advanced analgesic and sedative drugs not carried on NHS ambulances. Ian continues: “The way our clinical team provides patient care continually evolves. Thirty years ago, when we were first founded, our aim was to take the patient to the most appropriate hospital as swiftly as possible with timely interventions to preserve life. Fast forward to today and we aim to bring critical care rapidly to the patient, giving them the best possible chance of survival and good recovery before we leave the incident scene. “We can deliver this exceptional care via helicopter or critical care car and we are proud to extend our availability into the night, which is already proving to be an effective service within the southern counties we cover.” Find out more about Midlands Air Ambulance Charity and its fleet of three air ambulance helicopters and three critical care cars via www.midlandsairambulance. com/missions and follow the organisation on social media. NWAS NHS 111 service launches pilot text support service for patients An SMS pilot offering quick and easy access to health advice following a call is currently being trialled by NHS 111 in the North West. Helpful care advice, which is usually read to the caller following an assessment by NHS 111, will now be sent in a text message, making it easier for people to digest and refer back to. This will also reduce the length of the call, allowing NHS 111 to answer even more requests for urgent care advice from the public. When people call 111, if they are considered suitable for the text service, the health advisor will check they have access to receive SMS messages and give them the option to receive the appropriate care advice via SMS rather than listen to it being read aloud over the phone. When healthcare advice is given verbally, it raises the possibility that the caller may only remember or act on part of the advice given. This can mean people need to call back or seek further support from other NHS services. Having the information available to read again on their mobile phone will help to improve patient understanding of the advice, helping to reduce avoidable future contact with NHS services. 111 Senior Service Delivery Manager Sally Rose said: “We handle over 30,000 calls per week in 111 and are always looking to make improvements that benefit overall patient care. “The pilot has been running for just over a month and we have already had feedback from our patients who have said they find it helpful. “It is enabling patients to properly receive all the advice, giving them time to digest the information at their own pace, whilst allowing them to refer back to the care advice following the call. “It is no secret how busy NHS 111 has been and continues to be, and an added benefit of this pilot is the time it saves on each call, which allows our health advisors to assist the next patient more quickly.” The NHS 111 service is available 24 hours a day by visiting 111. nhs.uk or dialling 111. This pilot is currently optional for people calling NHS 111. AMBULANCE UK - JUNE Do you have anything you would like to add or include in Newsline? Please contact us and let us know. 87
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Ambulance UK June 2022

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