TV footage captures the moment when a schoolboy’s dislocated knee was manipulated back into place with the help of ambulance staff. 12-year-old Teddy’s knee ‘popped out’ when he was playing rugby at his school near Portsmouth early last year. He was in agony and couldn’t put any weight on his leg – he needed pain relief and his knee had to be put back into place.
Paramedic Mercedes Bateman and Emergency Care Assistant Ali Alves from South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), who were wearing body-mounted cameras, helped Teddy and filmed everything for TV show Inside The Ambulance: Coast and Country (W, Friday, January 22nd at 8.00pm).
Paramedic Mercedes Bateman (L) and Emergency Care Assistant Ali Alves (R)
“Teddy’s kneecap…looked quite deformed and he wasn’t able to straighten his leg,” says Mercedes. “He was already in a lot of pain so we’d need to give him some painkillers before we started doing anything. Popping Teddy’s knee back into place was going to be really painful.”
Mercedes gave Teddy Entonox – known as ‘laughing gas’ because of one of its side effects – to ease his pain. It’s commonly used during childbirth. But the treatment made Teddy dizzy and upset, so there was no time to lose before the pain relief wore off.
So Mercedes and Ali helped to manipulate the kneecap back into place by getting Teddy to carefully straighten his leg. Once the kneecap popped back their young patient was in a lot less pain.
But just to be safe, Teddy was taken to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth for an x-ray to check if there was any more serious damage to his knee.
Watch Teddy’s story on Inside The Ambulance: Coast and Country on UKTV premium digital channel W on Friday, January 22nd at 8.00pm.
W is available on Sky 109/809(HD), Virgin 125/211(HD), BT/Plusnet 311/383(HD), TalkTalk 311
W+1: Sky 209, Virgin 190
On demand on Sky and Virgin
Ends
TV footage shows the helicopter rescue of a woman who was thrown from her horse in an isolated Oxfordshire field. 62-year-old Philippa was treated by staff from South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) who called in the Thames Valley air ambulance to get her to hospital as the field she was in was so hard to get to. The footage, which was filmed last February, features in Inside The Ambulance: Coast and Country (W, Monday, January 18th at 8.00pm).
Paramedic Dom Tolputt and Emergency Care Assistant Ellis Mead were called to help Philippa, whose horse reared up when it was frightened by workmen.
Philippa, who’s been riding horses for more than fifty years, fell on her lower back and was in a lot of pain with a suspected pelvic fracture.
The team decided to call the air ambulance because the boggy flooding meant that they couldn’t get their ambulance near enough to Philippa, who had been lying injured and immobile on muddy ground for an hour and was at risk of hypothermia.
Paramedic Dom Tolputt (L) and Emergency Care Assistant Ellis Mead (R)
The helicopter flew from RAF Benson in South Oxfordshire with senior critical care paramedic Lisa and Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine Consultant Simon.
Philippa was flown to hospital where a trauma team were waiting for her. She received multiple x-rays and a CT scan to assess her injuries.
Inside The Ambulance: Coast and Country is on UKTV premium digital channel W on Monday, January 18th at 8.00pm.
W is available on Sky 109/809(HD), Virgin 125/211(HD), BT/Plusnet 311/383(HD), TalkTalk 311
W+1: Sky 209, Virgin 190
On demand on Sky and Virgin
Ends
NB: Filming for this latest new series of Inside the Ambulance took place between January and March 2020
Three members of staff at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) have become the first in the Trust to have the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Jen Hall, Paramedic Team Leader, and Scott Cawley, Emergency Care Assistant, both based at The Blue Light Hub in Milton Keynes, and Sandie Jackson, Hospital Liaison Officer based at the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Guildford, have all had the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Sandie, who works for the SCAS Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service in Surrey and was the first staff member in SCAS to be vaccinated, said:
“I have been the Hospital Liaison Officer at the Royal Surrey for the past year, and what a year it has been! The hospital’s vaccination hub went live on 8 December and a week later the vaccine was offered to myself and other patient facing healthcare workers based on the hospital site.
My role takes me into A&E and all ward and clinic areas in the hospital, so my decision to have the vaccine was never in doubt as I need to keep my patients, my colleagues and of course myself, as safe as possible.”
Jen and Scott both work for SCAS’ emergency ambulance service and were invited to attend the vaccination hub at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. They met the criteria of clinically vulnerable healthcare workers to qualify for them to be vaccinated in this first wave, along with people aged 80 and over and care home workers.
Jen was very keen to explain why having the COVID-19 vaccine is so important to her, adding:
“I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when I was 37-years-old, which was a complete shock and it has led me to have some very low moments. Since then I’ve been managing my condition alongside the demands of being a frontline paramedic. It’s impossible to explain why I’m fine one day and the next I can be in excruciating pain, or not able to physically do everything I need to do when on the job.
“My manager and team have been incredibly supportive, and I am fortunate enough to have a great medical team around me. I have learnt to manage my bad days and whilst the condition is pants, they are pants I can wear! Because I’m prescribed immunosuppressants to help manage my rheumatoid arthritis, I am at high risk of developing an infection. It was therefore a no-brainer to accept the COVID-19 vaccination as soon as it became available as it not only protects me, but also my patients and my colleagues.”
Scott, who works in Milton Keynes alongside Jen, added:
“Unfortunately I was diagnosed with bladder cancer in December 2019, so I’ve had to shield a couple of times this year whilst I was having BCG immunotherapy treatment. Thanks to the tremendous support of my Team Leader, Siobhan, and the whole team at Milton Keynes, it’s made a daunting situation less daunting.
“Having the COVID-19 vaccine will give me back control of my recovery and I would urge anyone who is given the opportunity of having the vaccine to take it. It’s a painless process but can help save so many lives as together we can all play our part in defeating this pandemic.
“I consider myself very lucky to be amongst the first to have the vaccine given the massive immunisation programme ahead of the NHS.”
Mark Begley, Head of Operations for Milton Keynes and Aylesbury Vale, said:
“Our staff are SCAS’ most valuable asset and therefore anything we can do or support to ensure their health and wellbeing is our top priority. The vaccination programme is a positive step along with other measures already implemented across SCAS that will help to keep our staff safe and well, allowing them to do what they are brilliant at – looking after patients who need our services.
I would like to express my thanks on behalf of SCAS to our hospital partners who have opened up their vaccination programmes to our clinically vulnerable staff and those whose roles are based on hospital sites.”
Sandie, Jen and Scott are due to have their second and final vaccine dose 21 days after their first.
Ends
Notes for editors:
- The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been approved for use in the UK having met the strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness set out by the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
- Other vaccines are being developed. They will only be available on the NHS once they have been thoroughly tested to make sure they are safe and effective.
- At first, the vaccine is being offered to people who are most at risk from coronavirus, before being offered more widely: people aged 80 and over, care home workers, NHS staff who have been assessed as being at highest risk of serious illness from COVID-19
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) has this week launched a critical care transfer service in partnership with the Thames Valley & Wessex Critical Care Network.
Critical care units across the region can come under significant pressure at various times with demand for beds outstripping capacity, and that has been more evident this year with the coronavirus outbreak leading to even more patients needing critical care.
Over the course of 2020, there has been increasing demand to move critically unwell patients from one critical care site to another that can provide more specialist critical care (such as the treatment of burns or major trauma injuries) or to create space in one critical care unit for new patients, as well as moving patients to critical care units closer to their home.
From Monday, 14 December, two dedicated ambulances and teams of paramedics and emergency care assistants – one based at Oxford and one at Southampton – are now available between 9am and 9pm to transfer critical care patients from one unit to another or repatriate them to a unit closer to home. It is anticipated that up to three such patient transfers will be made each day.
Craig Heigold, Paramedic Team Leader – Adult Critical Care at SCAS said:
“I am excited that we have the opportunity to set up this service and truly lead the way in how we care for and transfer some of our sickest patients. The new team of existing paramedics and emergency care assistants have all embarked on a training programme supported by Health Education England in order to gain competence in adult critical care transfers. The new service will also free up our frontline 999 teams who would otherwise have been asked to undertake the transfer which ultimately helps us get the right resource to all our patients.”
Dr Wassim Shamsuddin, Thames Valley & Wessex Adult Critical Care Network Medical Lead for Transfers, and Consultant Anaesthetist at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“I am delighted to finally see the Adult Critical Care Transfer Service go live. Over the past four months we have been working hard to set up our model, equip and train a team of individuals to provide critical care transport to adult patients. This already happens within the Neonatal and Paediatric population, and so to have a service dedicated to critically unwell adults is a remarkable achievement for our region. Over the next year we hope to continue to develop the service to ensure we can meet the needs of every hospital, keeping critical staff in hospital and providing a continuum of care to sick patients during transfer.”
The two critical care transfer service dedicated ambulances have been kitted out with additional equipment and monitors in order to safely transport the critically ill patients, and the staff delivering the service have received additional clinical training. The service has been commissioned and funded by NHS England and SCAS is currently in the process of securing hospital consultants to work alongside the dedicated ambulance crews, who will provide further support during the transfer and to the hospital intensive care units involved in the transfer.
Ends
Notes for editors
- The service will cover the Thames Valley and Hampshire, as well as Salisbury and East Dorset (for patients coming from Poole, Bournemouth and Dorchester into Southampton).
- The service will operate 12 hours a day (09:00-21:00), seven days a week
- One appropriately equipped and crewed ambulance will be based at the regional major trauma centres (John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and University Hospital Southampton)
- Clinical leadership is provided by consultants within the Thames Valley & Wessex Critical Care Network
- Call centre and triage infrastructure is provided by SCAS
Foundation Trust members have voted in new governors in the latest round of elections at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS).
The election results were confirmed on 24 November and the successful candidates will serve for a term of three years.
As a foundation trust, SCAS is accountable to local people, patients and staff. Its 17,000 members are represented by their elected governors, who feed the views of their members into the Trust to shape future services.
The successful candidates are as follows:
Elected as public governors for Oxfordshire: Loretta Light, David Wesson
Elected as public governors for Buckinghamshire: Stephen Bromhall, Mathew Clark
Elected as public governors for Berkshire: Laurence Chacksfield
Elected as public governors for Hampshire: Andrew Bartlett, David Luckett, Charles Henry McGill, Tony Nicholson, Mary Perryman
Elected as staff governors: Ian Sayer, MayBeth Pardy, Rachael Cook, Sherri Green, Loren Bennett
Lena Samuels, Chair of South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“On behalf of SCAS and the Board of Directors, I am delighted to welcome newly elected governors to the Council of Governors, and also to congratulate those who have been successfully re-elected. Governors play a vital role in representing the voice of patients, staff and stakeholders in the design and delivery of our services, and are greatly valued by the Trust. I look forward to our collective working on this important agenda going forward, and in supporting the next stage of the Trust’s development.”
If you would like to become a member of South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and have the chance to stand for election and vote next time around, you can complete the membership application form on the Trust website at scas.nhs.uk/get-involved or contact the Foundation Trust on 01869 365 126 or via email at getinvolved@scas.nhs.uk
Ends
Vandals attacked a large number of cars in Bransgore, Hampshire, in the early hours of Sunday morning. The vehicles damaged included the First Responder ambulance car of the Bransgore Community First Responders (CFRs). With its mirror smashed it had to be taken out of service and is unable to be used to attend 999 emergency calls in the area.
The highly visible car was parked near Burnt House Lane while the on-call volunteer responder was inside his house. He had already attended two calls that evening, and the car was last seen intact at about 1.30am. At 7.30am he found that the door mirror has been smashed to pieces. It then transpired that numerous other cars had been attacked and at about 6am some suspects had been chased by a neighbour but they had got away.
Local residents and other crime victims have shared their outrage on social media and have secured some CCTV footage of those thought responsible.
Mike Jukes BEM, Co-ordinator of the Bransgore scheme said:
“While we share the frustration of everyone whose car has been damaged, to actually damage our ambulance car so it is not useable, during a time of the pandemic health emergency is disgraceful. As a result of this mindless action our volunteers are less likely to be able to provide that critical response in the first few minutes of a medical emergency or cardiac arrest. This really could cost lives in our community until we can get the car back on the road. Local communities donate money which enables South Central Ambulance Charity to provide the cars. To have someone do this is so disrespectful to those who care.”
Jack Ansell, Operations Manager for South Central Ambulance Service in Hampshire said:
“The car is covered in high visibility markings, the vandals took all that into consideration and continued to cause damage. Damaging a vehicle which our local responders use in volunteer capacity and continue to raise funds to support, is disgusting. The team are now without a vehicle, which is only three months old, and this could significantly reduce the chances of them being available to the local community to attend a life-threatening call. The costs of repair or insurance excess will now have to be borne by the SCAS Charity and so this money cannot now be used for other lifesaving equipment. I would urge anyone with information to contact the police. I hope that those responsible don’t find themselves needing the services of the local community responders as their actions could well mean they are not available.”
The Community Responders are asking anyone whose car was damaged and who has not yet reported it to Police to do so as soon as possible so that police can get an exact picture of how many cars were damaged and the costs involved. They also ask anyone with information or CCTV footage which may help to identify those responsible to notify Hampshire Police on 101, or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111
The South Central Ambulance Charity funds Community First Responder schemes. They develop and enhance the care that the ambulance service can provide to those in need. This includes funding research projects, state of the art equipment and improving working environments.
Anyone who may be interested in becoming a community first responder in the New Forest area should ring 0800 587 0207 or email cfr@scas.nhs.uk
Ends
Page 1 of 2712345...1020...»Last »
