On the frontline with Covid-19 responders...
OLLIE is just 18 years old, but instead of buying his first pint in a pub, the student is training to be a call assessor for the West Midlands Ambulance Service. He is just one of dozens of people who volunteered to help the service at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in April.
“The service has been the hardest hit so far of any part of the UK outside of London,” says chief executive Anthony Marsh.
On its busiest day, calls quadrupled and there was a big recruitment drive.
This hard-hitting documentary has exclusive access to the service, looking behind the scenes at how crews, control room staff, managers and trainees dealt with the biggest challenge to the service.
After squeezing five weeks of call handler training into just a fortnight, Ollie is on duty and dealing with traumatic calls, including one from a man who feels suicidal.
Jackie, a 55-year-old retired sales manager, has also completed the training. She says: “This is a complete jump. There’s no way in the world I’d ever have thought about doing something like this.”
To get more ambulances onto the frontline, managers also deployed student paramedics.
Sam, 21, and 20-yearold Caitlin hit the road, encountering patients with breathing difficulties, patients in care homes, and patients with mental health issues.
After just two shifts, Caitlin falls ill with Covid-19 symptoms and needs an urgent test for the virus.
“It is daunting,” says Sam. “No matter what precautions you take, there’s always a possibility that you could contract it.”