Supporting the Welsh Ambulance service: hear from the driving force
Armed Forces personnel have been joining ambulance teams in Wales, helping out by getting behind the wheels of ambulances, disinfecting ambulances after their jobs, and learning how to use PPE equipment.
Staff from the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust trained 30 Reserve soldiers at the Infantry Battle School in Brecon.
The 30 Reserve soldiers have day jobs ranging from farmers, bar staff and students. They have been drawn in from British Army units in Wales, which has a UK Operations Room at Brecon Barracks — the British Army’s Welsh headquarters.
60 personnel have also climbed behind the wheel as ambulance drivers for the NHS, while others have joined in building beds at Cardiff’s Dragon’s Heart Hospital. This hospital in the Principality Stadium, Cardiff, is the Welsh equivalent of a Nightingale hospital.
Lance Corporal Gareth Kennedy-Brown is a recruiter for the Army reserves, but his primary job is a bar tender in Aberystwyth. He says:
“We’re here to assist in whatever way we can the Wales Ambulance Service Trust alongside the NHS.
Our specific task for today was to get trained up on decontamination on ambulances and other appliances that will be used over the next few weeks. In one of the sessions today we practiced donning the PPE equipment, including a full body suit.
There’s a real sense of belonging in our family-oriented Battalion.”
Officer Cadet Marchbank is a regional rugby co-ordinator, he says:
“What has been fantastic has been speaking to the paramedics. We’re just here to support and be an asset to them.”
This group of personnel are just part of a taskforce in Wales supporting the NHS Coronavirus response: on the frontline, behind the scenes, and everywhere in between.
