Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2013 | Page 89

FASHION HEALTH & BEAUTY

James Pike working in the Ambulance Control Centre

minutes. We achieve 97 per cent.
“It is challenging, because although
we have the bigger towns of Newport,
Ryde and Shanklin, we have the more
diverse areas, like outlying villages
and of course West Wight. We rely on
co-responder teams, such as assistance
from the fire brigade, which help us in
some areas, and also voluntary first aid
first responder schemes, which we have
dotted around the Island as well.
“They are trained by us, and help
us to meet those challenging targets.
They normally get there within the
eight minutes, and then we can back
them up with a professional crew. Yes,
we have had some adversity in recent
weeks and months, and obviously I
could never guarantee anybody a 100
per cent service when it comes to
target times. It’s all about resources
against demand. We are a free access
service to the public, and we try
to predict the demand at certain
times the best we can, and when we
anticipate busier times we do put more
crews on.
“But there is always going to be

that occasion when you have your
full allocation of ambulances out,
and that next call comes in. We then
have to clinically prioritise calls as
they come in and ensure the most
clinically needy get the next available
ambulance. We appreciate it is difficult
for a family that is having to wait
for an ambulance, but any concerns
the public have, I like to meet them
personally to discuss it fully with
them.”
What would happen if there was

a major incident on the Island? He
responded: “We are equipped, as we
have our own specialist teams for
any terrorist-type attacks and major
incidents. We have trained staff
who could hold the fort for a few
hours until reinforcements from the
mainland arrived.”
The new centre embraces not only
the ambulance service, but district
nursing, mental health, social services
and a rehabilitation team, which is
evolving into a one-stop shop for
health care on the Island.
Chris accepts that on the Island
the Ambulance Service is more
multi-tasking than on the mainland.
He has a team of just four 6V