Andrew Percy MP

Andrew Percy MP

Member of Parliament for Brigg & Goole and the Isle of Axholme

Andrew Joins Ambulance Crew

Ambulance_PhotoAndrew recently joined one of the ambulance crews in the Goole area on their Friday night shift. Andrew wanted to experience first hand the challenges faced by the ambulance service locally.

Prospective MP, Andrew Percy says, "I was delighted to join Robin Drury, who is a Clinical Team Educator at Goole, and his colleague Emma on their ambulance recently. Having spent all day at school teaching, I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at Goole Ambulance station at 6pm; I didn’t have long to wait.

 

"We were one of 2 ambulances working from Goole last Friday and our first call didn’t take us very far, just a few streets away in Goole. However, our next call took us all the way to York where we ended up transferring a patient to York Hospital. I have never got to York so quickly and it was certainly an experience tearing up the A19 with the sirens and blue lights flashing!

 

"On our return to Goole we were then called out to North Cave which resulted in us heading to Hull Royal Infirmary. Then, on our way back to Goole, we were called to Walkington near Beverley which took us all the way back to Hull Royal Infirmary again. By this time it was the early hours of the morning!

 

"Because of the way the call handling system works, it didn’t matter that our ambulance was supposed to be based in Goole, if we were the nearest ambulance then we were despatched. That explains why, once we were at Hull Royal Infirmary, we were dispatched to calls in the Hull area, rather than being sent back to Goole. That can mean that sometimes our crews can be some distance from Goole for much of their shift. Obviously, we were not the only crew covering in Goole so the area was not left deserted.

 

"However, I did find this fact one of the most surprising things of the evenings. I never for a moment thought an ambulance from Goole would be sent to York. I was also surprised that on every one of our calls we arrived to find a Rapid Response Vehicle had already arrived.

 

"Robin and Emma were great hosts for the evening and I learned much about the service from them. They were able to answer all of my questions and I was struck by their professionalism in dealing with a broader range of incidents than I had expected. It was also interesting to see the interaction between the ambulance crew and the hospitals.

 

"My visit has certainly given me some food for thought and I would very much like to do this again. If I am elected, I would hope to do this once a year as I think you learn far more actually being at the front line, then you can ever learn from meetings."

 

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