Ambulance service calls in off-duty staff to cope with increased demand
THE number of calls for the emergency ambulance service over the past week has been significantly above the normal daily average.
During particularly busy periods on some days, the service has had to respond to multiple calls at the same time, meaning officers and off-duty staff were called in to respond.
The marine ambulance, the Flying Christine III was sent to Sark three times last week.
On Friday it went to the aid of female with a medical condition which required further treatment in Guernsey. The Flying Christine III was called at the request of the Sark doctor and was just one of more than 20 calls for St John that day.
Friday’s call-out marked the third trip to Sark for the Flying Christine III that week. Previous calls were on Wednesday morning and the early hours of Thursday morning.
A paramedic-led medical team from the Emergency Ambulance Service together with a volunteer boat crew left St Peter Port harbour at 3.30pm on Friday.
The Flying Christine was met in Sark by the island’s doctor and following a handover at the harbour the patient was transferred onto the vessel for the crossing to St Peter Port.
Once onboard the boat the patient was assessed by the paramedic and monitored during the journey.
On arrival in St Peter Port the casualty was transferred to a waiting road ambulance and was taken to the Emergency Department of the PEH.
St John Ambulance Guernsey thanked the volunteer boat crew who responded during the incident and the medical clinicians who attended this case.
On all three occasions, volunteer boat crew from St John and a paramedic-led medical team from the emergency ambulance service responded.
Other calls to St John have been to patients displaying potential Covid-19 symptoms.
These call-outs can take a significant amount of time and have required staff to wear extra Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as a precaution.
Following these cases, ambulances also need to be deep cleaned before they can be deployed to the next incident.
At times, volunteers from St John Ambulance Guernsey have been brought in to assist with the cleaning of vehicles.
The service thanked those volunteers for their help at this time.
'We are working closely with colleagues at Health & Social Care and in the Emergency Department and, because many of these call-outs can be complex, they require a multi-agency approach.
Last week, paramedics also responded to three road traffic collisions, two of which occurred on the same evening and one required to ambulances.
