On Thursday, 15 February, a team from SCAS had the pleasure of meeting HRH The Princess Royal.
The team had been invited by Ordnance Survey (OS) to an event alongside other organisations to showcase the joint work with OS highlighting the innovative ways the UK is now mapped and how this helps the emergency services.
The SCAS team was able to talk about how they use OS data and analytics to select locations for training exercises to make sure they’re as realistic as possible, as well as looking at the physical and other barriers that mean some publicly accessible defibrillators aren’t used when a patient suffers a cardiac arrest nearby.
Resilience Manager, Keith Packwood, who spoke to Her Royal Highness at the event, added:
“In areas like the New Forest, where there are lots of gates, fences, private only access and other obstacles, where we thought we could get through from the information provided by the 999 caller about how they walked to where they are, for example, it’s not necessarily the best or even a possible route, for vehicle access.”
“Sometimes we might have a situation where we have found their access point but then had to travel miles in the opposite direction to find access for our own vehicle.”
Find out more about HRH The Princess Royal’s visit to the first emergency services showcase held by OS here: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/news/the-princess-royal-visits-emergency-services-showcase