Great Western Ambulance Service Honoured For Dealing With Beach Race Crash

AMBULANCE workers have been praised for the way the handled the Weston Beach Race crash last year.

When 22 people were injured during the motorcycle race on Weston beach, teamwork and co-operation were needed to provide excellent care to every single patient.

Great Western Ambulance and St John Ambulance staff worked together to treat the patients and take them to hospital, while staff in the control room co-ordinated the incident and made sure the right vehicles and staff arrived at the scene.

Large scale incidents are always very challenging but the collaborative working and professionalism of everyone involved meant that all patients got the help they needed quickly and efficiently.

For their efforts all staff involved in dealing with the incident were among more than 100 people honoured at last night’s Great Western Ambulance Service Chief Officer’s Awards ceremony held at The Assembly Rooms in Bath.

In front of an invited audience of over 200 VIP guests, trust personnel and their families, GWAS Chief Officer David Whiting presented the awards..

Mr Whiting said: "The ambulance service is built on excellent teamwork to ensure our patients receive the best care we can provide.

"But it is also important that we recognise those occasions when individuals – our staff and from outside the service – have gone that extra mile and made a real difference to the care we can provide.

"All the people we have honoured at this event have demonstrated that commitment.

"What better way to illustrate that than the presence of one of those patients who benefited from the quick-thinking and selflessness that all our award winners displayed.

"I am very proud of everyone who has received an award and it is essential that we are able to pay tribute to their achievements."

Recipients of Chief Officer’s Commendations were honoured for their actions in specific incidents, often in extremely difficult or even dangerous situations.

This year, the ceremony also featured presentation of new Chief Officer’s Awards – made to individuals who have made a significant contribution to improving the quality of services and patient care either in a clinical or non-clinical setting.

Recipients included a seven-strong GWAS team of clinicians from across the region who delivered an ambitious immunisation programme to frontline staff against H1N1 swine flu to protect them, patients and the service against the pandemic.

Their efforts resulted in over half of GWAS’s frontline staff being immunised within a month – one of the highest vaccination rates in the NHS.