Page 12 - Eagle Eye Summer 2021

The East of England Ambulance Service Trust
By Phillip Parker
The East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) has run a military co-responder initiative for several years. This scheme has double crewed ambulances (DCA) based at RAF Honington, RAF Marham and RAF Henlow that are crewed by volunteer service personnel. In April 2020 during the first COVID lockdown these ambulances and crews were called to support the NHS 24/7 and crewed their ambulances on a fulltime basis for over three months.
I volunteered and trained as a community first responder (CFR) in November 2019. My first call out was on the night I returned from completing my training course and I remember it well. Whilst attending my training I met Alex Laurent who is the co-responder scheme manager for EEAST. When he learnt I was based here at RAF Wyton he explained the co-responder scheme and asked if I would be prepared to help organise and run a RAF Wyton co-responder team. I have spent the entire year training, organising and bartering to bring that idea to fruition.
I engaged directly with the station CO Wg Cdr Slack in March 2020 who gave the idea his full support. Once the groundwork was done EEAST gave the go ahead to recruit and in June 2020 I started advertising for volunteers. I was inundated with volunteers who just wanted to drive ambulances with the blue lights flashing and the siren blearing. After explaining this was not what the team was all about, I was left with a hard core of around 26 volunteers from all parts of the station.
It wasn’t till December 2020 that EEAST finally confirmed we could run a two-week training course here at RAF Wyton for 18 volunteers. I busied myself with booking rooms and getting permissions for EEAST to access the station only to be thwarted by the second peak of COVID. EEAST initially cancelled our
two weeks of training because their training staff were gearing up to run emergency training courses in response to the new COVID peak. Any and every full time EEAST staff member was drafted to the front line, this included 1st and 2nd year paramedic students. Thankfully EEAST’s head of training was able to spare the instructors and the course was back on.
The number of volunteers was reduced to 12 and a strict regime of lateral flow testing and two temperature checks per day would be enforced. To further reduce our risks of self- infection the first two days of the course were taught online and the now 12 trainees stayed at home. The course was hard, testing and very demanding in parts. We were taught adult and paediatric basic life support (BLS) skills as well as how to deal with cardiac arrests. The training included everything we would need to deal with the multitude of reasons to call 999 for an ambulance. This was the first week and after our exams we were given our homework and sent on our way tired and broken.
The second week was about enhancing our new skills with scenario-based assessments and learning how to use the equipment that usually comes on an ambulance. Diagnostic tools such as an automatic external defibrillator, echocardiogram machines, blood pressure machines and blood sugar testers were all part of the training. Manual handling is also a big part of the job and for which EEAST have two wonderful devices to help raise people from the ground who have fallen without risking injury either to the casualty of ourselves.
The Manga Elc is an inflatable cushion that when inflated brings the casualty to a seated position from which they can be assessed. The RAISOR chair is a motor driven device, which comes in several pieces, and fits together under the casualty in the form of a flat chair. You can then raise them from the floor to a seated
position and when appropriate you can raise them further to an almost standing position.
The team finished and finally qualified on Friday 5th February but that’s not the end. The whole team will be subject to continuous professional development (CPD) for as long as they remain part of it. Every month the team will carry out intense training sessions to hone, enhance or update their core skills. Every six months each member of the team must pass a BLS assessment in order to keep their place on the team. For some of us we face a four-week intensive driving course in April to allow us to respond to incidents on blue lights, training does not stop.
RAF Wyton now have a dedicated team of volunteers who will shortly be responding to 999 calls for EEAST within our local community. We will be putting out as many shifts as we can 7 days a week starting when we finish our day job and finishing at midnight during the week. At the weekend we will be putting out 6, 8, 10 or 12 hour shifts depending on who is available to volunteer. The minimum requirement for each volunteer is four weekday / weeknight shifts and two weekend shifts and it is not for the faint of heart.
The team have trained to operate with a DCA but due to an unprecedented demand we may well utilise a fast response car first. This will not stop the team from helping the local community when they need medical help. In time we will be equipped with a front-line ambulance and work alongside our civilian counterparts to help save lives in our local community.
If you want to help save lives, need the best rewarding secondary duty and have the time to spare come and have a chat with me, we need to grow our fledgling team to around 26. New courses will be available in April and May this year.
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