Ground heroes help save more lives
A new call desk is helping the heroes of the skies save even more lives.
The facility installed four months ago at the control centre of the North West Air Ambulance, has dramatically increased the number of incidents reached by the flying paramedics.
Based in Broughton, Preston, the desk enables specially trained dispatchers to monitor incidents across the entire North West region and target the helicopter to where it is most needed.
Aircraft manager Dave Rigby said: "At one time we could only see one area, now we can see patients across the whole of the North West Ambulance Service and pick up specific jobs in specific areas which we may have missed before."
A spokesman for NWAS said that, since the new system was installed, the use of the helicopter has doubled.
Mr Rigby said: "The dispatcher monitors all the screens and looks for any incident where the heli-med can be an actual benefit to the patient, and then we dispatch direct from here, from the base, and monitor it throughout that incident."
The desk also enables the team to better pool their resources with other Air Ambulances in neighbouring regions.
Rachel Moore is one of two specially trained air desk dispatchers.
Along with her colleague, Anne-Marie Fallon, she monitors the screens and offers the crew's assistance as emergencies occur.
She said: "Instead of just focussing on one county at a time, we can look at all of them together and it gives us a better overall picture of what is going on. The system is more demanding but it has been a nice challenge."
The North West Air Ambulance service is a registered charity which began in 2005.
Reaching an average of 1,000 incidents a year, the service costs 1.9m a year to run.
For more information about the North West Air Ambulance contact Lynda Brislin by e-mail at lynda.brislin@northwestairambulance.com or visit the website www.northwestairambulance.com
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Weather for Preston
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 14 C to 18 C
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