Drones on patrol to spot arsonists
Doctors warn critically ill patients are being turned away from local hospitals due to a shortage of beds
DRONES and plain-clothes officers will be used to deter potential arsonists before they start devastating grass fires in the Valleys this spring and summer.
Police have also issued a strong warning to potential arsonists ahead of the Easter weekend, which has previously seen a spike in grass fires as the weather traditionally becomes warmer.
Dozens of huge grass fires were tackled by emergency crews last year, with crews battling more than 70 grass fires in the space of 48 hours that could have “cost people’s lives” in March.
The drones will be used to spot arsonists across vast rural areas in South Wales and plain-clothes officers will patrol areas at risk.
South Wales Police CRITICALLY ill or injured patients are being turned away from their local hospitals because their intensive care units (ICU) do not have enough beds, doctors have warned.
The problem is the most severe in Wales, according to a new UK-wide survey of ICU consultants who claim bed capacity in these units can reach between 95% and 100%.
In some cases, patients who need potentially lifesaving treatment need to be temporarily moved from intensive care to other wards – and are even sent to hospitals in neighbouring health boards.
The highest level recommended for safe and sergeant Richie Gardiner said: “I think the benefits are in terms of the plain clothes and us communicating with the community is telling the efficient patient care in ICU is 85%, but many Welsh hospitals regularly fail to meet this target.
A&E staff at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, have been experiencing exceptional demand in February and into March.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s medical director, Dr Graham Shortland, said ICU patients sometimes need to be “repatriated” for their own safety.
“We have seen, compared to February 2017, a 7% increase in attendances for the emergency unit,” he said.
“More specifically the increase relates to severely public and reassuring them that we are out there every day until the end of May.
“The plain clothes officers will patrol areas where sometimes we can’t get to.
“But it’s important we get out into these rural areas, that ill patients and we have seen an increase of 13% in patients requiring resuscitation. Also of those patients who are severely ill there has been a 15% increase in patients attending over the age of 85.”
He said when a hospital is at the highest level of pressure, known as escalation level four, Welsh health boards turn to the Critical Care Network for support.
“It is important to note we are a tertiary centre and we regularly work with neighbouring health boards to routinely repatriate patients back to their local hospital when their episode of tertiary care has been completed,” he we are seen in these rural areas and that officers give advice to the dog walkers with their animals, give advice to people out there who are enjoying the countryside but maybe in a way that doesn’t fit in with what the laws of the land expect.
“We also want to deter people, we want people to understand that if you are out there and partaking in things that are illegal that person walking around the corner could be an officer and we will take positive action.”
Sgt Gardiner was talking at a demonstration near Tonypandy of the drones to be used to assist emergency crews. Mountainsides across added. “This is in the best interest of the patients and families concerned. When this is not possible we will also follow our own internal escalation processes.”
Testimonies from doctors in the survey, conducted by the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM), revealed that intensive care units are struggling to cope with the numbers of patients needing potential emergency care, such as after a car crash, heart attack, stroke or cancer operation.
According to their survey, which was completed by 20% of intensive care medicine (ICM) consultants the Valleys were left smoking and charred in 2017 after grass fires were started, with one spreading to the size of more than 160 rugby pitches.
Sgt Gardiner said that seeing “blackened” mountainsides adds to the “stigma that we need to get rid of” in the Valleys.
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the drones would also be used to spot potential areas that could be at risk. across the UK, three out of five units (62%) do not have a full complement of critical-care nursing staff.
They claim this regularly leads to cancelled operations and a greater risk of patient safety being compromised.
And more than a third (40%) said units have a bed or beds closed due to lack of staff on “at least a weekly basis”.
In Wales, 91% of respondents said patient transfer due to lack of ICU capacity is happening more often. Wales has 5.9 critical beds per 100,000 population compared to the European average of 11.5.
South Wales Fire group manager head of fire crime unit Matt Jones said: “It is a crime, it does have an impact on communities and the environment.”
He added that tackling the blazes has an impact on firefighters, too, who can spend several hours dealing with the fire.
Mr Jones said: “Grass fires are an unnecessary requirement for our firefighters – they put them at risk.”