Ambulance UK February 2024

NEWSLINE
NEWSLINE
AMBULANCE UK – FEBRUARY
Ahead of the Board meeting,
SECAmb’s Chief Nurse and
Director of Quality, Margaret
Dalziel, was named as the Trust’s
Domestic Abuse and Sexual
Violence Lead.
SECAmb is running a campaign
to highlight and address
inappropriate behaviour.
Launched earlier this year, ‘Until
it Stops’ reinforces the Trust’s
commitment to making SECAmb
a safe place for all.
The 10 core principles and
actions of the Charter are:
1. We will actively work to
eradicate sexual harassment
and abuse in the workplace.
2. We will promote a culture
that fosters openness and
transparency, and does not
tolerate unwanted, harmful
and/or inappropriate sexual
behaviours.
3. We will take an intersectional
approach to the sexual safety
of our workforce, recognising
certain groups will experience
sexual harassment and abuse
at a disproportionate rate.
4. We will provide appropriate
support for those in our
workforce who experience
unwanted, inappropriate and/
or harmful sexual behaviours.
5. We will clearly communicate
standards of behaviour.
This includes expected
action for those who witness
inappropriate, unwanted and/
or harmful sexual behaviour.
6. We will ensure appropriate,
specific, and clear policies
are in place. They will include
appropriate and timely action
against alleged perpetrators.
7. We will ensure appropriate,
specific, and clear training is
in place.
8. We will ensure appropriate
reporting mechanisms are in
place for those experiencing
these behaviours.
9. We will take all reports
seriously and appropriate and
timely action will be taken in
all cases.
10. We will capture and share
data on prevalence and staff
experience transparently.
These commitments will
apply to everyone in our
organisation equally.
Where any of the above is not
currently in place, SECAmb is
committed to work towards
ensuring it is in place by July 2024
This Christmas was
‘less lethal’ than
most – but stick to
your New Year health
plans, says expert
There was a 21% decrease
in the number of registered
deaths this Christmas
compared to last year. Despite
the encouraging news, we
should all stick to our New
Year’s health resolutions, says
a leading testing expert.
This Christmas proved ‘less lethal
than average’, says a leading
blood testing expert. Though
more people tend to die of heart
problems during Christmas week
than at any other time of the
year, this year there were 7,447
deaths in England and Wales over
Christmas, compared to 9,517
in 2022 and a five-year average
of 8,228.
Dr Avinash Hari Narayanan
(MBChB), Clinical Lead at
London Medical Laboratory,
says: ‘Christmas can be an
unhealthy and stressful time of
the year. Research published
in the US journal “Circulation”
shows that 4% more people die
of heart problems during the
Christmas holiday compared to
even the mid-winter average.
Most fatal of all is Christmas
Day. It has the highest number of
cardiac deaths that occur rapidly
after presentation of a medical
problem. In second and third
place are 26 December and New
Year’s Day.
‘The latest figures from the Office
for National Statistics (ONS) show
7,447 deaths were recorded in
England and Wales in the week
ending 29 December, 2023. This
total was down 21.7% on last
Christmas and 9.4% on the fiveyear
average for Christmas week.
Despite reports of a surge in
Covid cases, Covid was involved
in only 2.4% of deaths (181
deaths compared to 393 deaths
over Christmas week, 2022).
‘We don’t yet have a complete
breakdown of the cause of deaths
for Christmas week, but we can
tell a lot from last Christmas’
results. While we don’t see all
causes of death in these figures,
we can see 1,803 deaths for
the week ending 30 December,
2022 were directly attributable
to diseases of the respiratory
system and 787 to influenza and
pneumonia. Only the preceding
week (ending 23 December,
2022) saw more deaths due to
respiratory diseases, influenza
and pneumonia.
‘Intriguingly, 10% more women
(4,999) than men (4,518) died
last Christmas week. The 2022
data for England and Wales
shows the north-west of England
suffered the most deaths in the
final week of December (1,393)
closely followed by the southeast
(1,369). More people died in
hospital over Christmas (4,169)
than at home (2,540).
‘Adding to the impact of fatty
Christmas foods, it’s perhaps not
generally known that a bad case
of flu can also have an impact
on the heart. There is a known
link between the flu virus and
cardiovascular disease. The flu
virus affects inflammatory and
blood-clotting pathways. This
can cause stable fatty deposits
on the artery walls (plaques) to
become unstable, leading to
rapid coronary artery blockage –
the main cause of heart attacks.
Together with Covid-19 and
respiratory syncytial virus (RSV),
we are far more likely to catch flu
during the winter.
‘Knowing all these issues, what
preventative action can we take
to fully recover from Christmas
excesses? Having access to
information about your health is
always beneficial, especially at a
time when we are all recovering
from eating fattier and richer
foods than normal. With GP
surgeries extremely busy at this
time of year, people worried
about their cholesterol levels
do have alternatives. The most
common option is a finger-prick
cholesterol blood test, which can
be taken at home or at many
local community pharmacies. By
monitoring our cholesterol over
time we can see how effective
our New Year’s healthy eating
resolutions have been at reducing
these levels.
‘London Medical Laboratory’s
revolutionary and convenient
home finger-prick Cholesterol
Profile test measures total
cholesterol, LDL “bad
cholesterol”, HDL “good”
cholesterol, non-HDL (a newly
adopted, more accurate,
measure) and other key markers.
It can be taken at home through
the post, or at one of the many
drop-in clinics that offer these
tests across London and
nationwide in over 95 selected
pharmacies and health stores.
For full details, see: https://www.
londonmedicallaboratory.com/
product/cholesterol-profile
Welsh Ambulance
Service using robots
to byte down on
repetitive tasks
THE Welsh Ambulance Service
is using robots to help run its
behind-the-scenes operations.
The Trust is using Robotic
Process Automation (RPA)
technology to perform timeconsuming
administrative tasks
to free up staff to focus on tasks
that add the most value.
The use of software robots, or
‘digital workers,’ is saving time and
allowing colleagues to harness
their skills more appropriately.
Jonny Sammut, the Trust’s
Director of Digital, said: “It’s been
a long-held ambition to use RPA
technology, so we’re thrilled to be
taking our first steps into it.
proactmedical.co.uk
“This is not about replacing
humans with robots – it’s about
automating those repetitive and
low-value tasks so that staff can
focus their skill and expertise on
the things that really matter.
“While the corporate staff who
perform these tasks aren’t
patient-facing, they support
those who are, and anything
which improves our efficiency
behind-the-scenes means that
patients will eventually reap the
benefit too.”
The Trust secured funding from
Welsh Government’s Digital
Priorities Investment Fund in
March 2022 to explore RPA
technology.
To date, it has been used across
five separate projects, including a
project to streamline the creation
of ICT accounts for new recruits.
Almost 900 accounts have been
created robotically since October
2022, freeing up ICT analysts to
apply their technical expertise to
more complex issues.
The technology is also being
used by the team who produce
investigation reports in response
to complaints, inquests and
serious incidents.
A once-manual trawl of logs
to establish a timeline of what
happened has been replaced by
an automatic process, increasing
the capacity of the team by an
average 36 hours per week and
allowing investigating officers
to focus on tasks where human
judgement is essential.
Leanne Smith, Assistant Director
of Digital Services, said: “Taking
away the pain of repetitive,
laborious tasks to enable our
people to use their knowledge
and expertise on high-value tasks
It’s time to choose accuracy.
Not just a Pulse Oximeter.
is what this is all about.
“This is our first foray into
automation but already
colleagues are saying that
it’s improving the workplace
experience and boosting morale.
“It’s an exciting time, and we
look forward to scaling up in the
coming years.”
Meanwhile, the Trust is
collaborating with the University
of York to train the next
generation of artificial intelligence
(AI) professionals.
The UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral
Training (CDT) in Lifelong Safety
Assurance of AI-Enabled
Autonomous Systems (SAINTS)
will welcome its first students
next year.
Nigel Rees, Assistant Director
of Research and Innovation at
the Welsh Ambulance Service,
CLASS IIB
MEDICAL DEVICE
AMBULANCE UK – FEBRUARY
16
17
For further recruitment vacancies visit: www.ambulanceukonline.com
For further recruitment vacancies visit: www.ambulanceukonline.com