Beeline: Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance Magazine, Spring 2016

WHAT WE DO
Clinical update
The last six months have been another
extremely busy time for the crew of
Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance
n April, we make the transition to providing
I
pre-hospital critical care for 12 hours a day,
seven days a week. This means that our crew
will consist of a Critical Care Paramedic (CCP) and Critical
Care Doctor, on duty, every single day.
This is important news for the people of Dorset and
Somerset, as while we have been providing pre-hospital
critical care for a large proportion of our shifts, the
public can now expect us to deliver drugs including
pre-hospital anaesthetics, perform surgical procedures
and give organ support to critically ill patients, at the
scene of an incident, on any given day.
With the formation of this team comes the capability
to provide more inter-hospital transfers and the
administration of pre-hospital anesthesia to critically
ill or injured patients that need it. Being able to do the
latter means that our team can also deliver life-saving
surgery or other critical care procedures at the scene of
an incident before taking the patient to hospital.
We have been working towards this for the last six
months and between December 2015 and March 2016,
93.5 per cent of clinical shifts were covered in this way.
Outside those shifts, the aircraft was manned by a team
made up of two CCPs.
Over the 2015 winter period, our team provided a
12-hour service – 10 hours on the aircraft and the latter
two hours (during darkness) via our Rapid Response
Vehicle. The mode of transport obviously plays a key
factor in us being able to reach patients as quickly as
possible and our helicopter can cover an extremely
large area in a very short time. However, what’s more
important is that when the helicopter is not available,
we still have the capability of bringing the Emergency
Department to the patient.
We have also been continuing our work with the
Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) desk
and with the South Western Ambulance Service NHS
Foundation Trust (SWASFT) road crews, to ensure we
are mobilised to patients that need us. In order to make
the best use of our Critical Care Team, CCP Neil Bizzell
has been leading an ‘outreach’ programme to provide
knowledge on our capabilities to all involved.
Claire Baker, Neil Bizzell, Phil Hyde, Ian Mew, Paul
Owen and Michelle Walker have been providing teaching
sessions to a variety of other SWASFT staff, clinicians
12 01823 669604 | www.dsairambulance.org.uk