SAVOY VENTURES AMBULANCE STAFF TO GET FIRST-IN-REGION EMERGENCY CARE TRAINING

SAVOY VENTURES LTD.

NHS PATIENT TRANSPORT

PRESS RELEASE

September 2, 2011.

SAVOY VENTURES AMBULANCE STAFF TO GET FIRST-IN-REGION EMERGENCY CARE TRAINING.

Staff at Greenhithe-based Patient Transport Service provider Savoy Ventures Limited are to undergo training which will qualify them to a standard unique in the region.

Care assistants and drivers providing patient transport for people being transferred to and from South London Healthcare Trust hospitals are to undergo an Emergency Care Assistance course operated by the renowned Chesterfield College, a leader in sector training.

“What this means to patients being transferred by Savoy staff is that, for instance, drivers who have First Aid certificates will undergo training and development which will qualify them to work as frontline ambulance crew alongside paramedics – we have already signed up 48 staff to the course,” said Jonathan Smith, Savoy Training Manager.

“We believe Savoy staff will be the first in the region to undergo such training, which will also raise their qualifications to an equal footing to that of NHS staff.”

The training involves 400 hours of online components, lectures and field internship, and also involves students third-manning in ambulances with paramedics and ambulance technicians, with successful students gaining an L2 Intermediate Level Apprenticeship in Health (Emergency Care Assistance).

As well as providing strong and highly qualified resource for patient transport services, Emergency Care Assistants (ECAs) are qualified to get involved in responding to emergency calls to provide care to patients, driving ambulances, assisting paramedics, using medical and life support equipment.

Savoy Ventures Limited is a private company providing patient transport and transfer services to NHS Trusts in the South East of England. Established in 2006, Savoy makes more than 240,000 patient transfer journeys a year. Savoy Ventures Limited is engaged by a number of NHS Trusts to carry out blue-light transfers, specialist wheelchair, incubator, bariatric chair or stretcher transport, notes/X-ray transfer, and movement of tissue between hospitals. Many staff are trained and qualified to Ambulance Technician level.

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley

im@pressrelations.co.uk

07788 978800

www.savoyventures.com

AMBULANCE RACE AGAINST TIME SAVES MAN’S LIFE.

SAVOY VENTURES LTD.

NHS PATIENT TRANSPORT

PRESS RELEASE

July 1, 2011.

AMBULANCE RACE AGAINST TIME SAVES MAN’S LIFE.

Two ambulance technicians are in line for employee of the month awards after making the dash of the year to make the difference of a lifetime.

Greenhithe-based father and son ambulance crew Richard and Paul Cross were told they had just 30 minutes to get a critically ill man from his bed at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich to the operating theatre in King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill.

“The nurses did an amazing job to get the patient from his bed to our ambulance in just 10 minutes, but that left us just 20 minutes to cover a route the satnav says takes 23 minutes, but anybody in the area knows can take 45 minutes if the traffic’s against you,” said Paul Cross, an ambulance technician with patient transport provider Savoy Ventures Limited. http://www.savoyventures.co.uk/

“Amazingly, we covered it in 15 minutes with my father – Richard – driving the ambulance on blue lights and sirens, but we knew it was tight when the King’s College team were waiting at the door and started working on the patient even as we had him on the trolley out of the ambulance.”

The patient had suffered a serious cranial bleed and needed immediate life-saving surgery which could only be provided at King’s College Hospital, but, amazingly, was sitting up in bed and talking to relatives within 48 hours.

“That was an incredibly satisfying and rewarding result,” said Paul. Video interview.

Richard Cross, who was driving the ambulance, said that a great deal of the good fortune in traffic was down to drivers being alert and decisive.

“Sometimes they panic, sometimes they don’t – and they coolly and calmly do exactly what we need, which is to make space for us without panicking or putting themselves in danger,” said Richard.

Savoy Ventures Limited is a private company providing patient transport and transfer services to NHS Trusts in the South East of England. Established in 2006, Savoy makes more than 240,000 patient transfer journeys a year. Savoy Ventures Limited is engaged by a number of NHS Trusts to carry out blue-light transfers, specialist wheelchair, incubator, bariatric chair or stretcher transport, notes/X-ray transfer, and movement of tissue between hospitals. Many staff are trained and qualified to Ambulance Technician level.

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley

im@pressrelations.co.uk

07788 978800

www.savoyventures.com

GREENHITHE PARAMEDIC AND TRAINER – FROM AIRBORNE EMERGENCIES IN ARIZONA, TO GETTING THE BEST OUT OF AMBULANCE CREWS IN SOUTH LONDON

SAVOY VENTURES LTD.

NHS PATIENT TRANSPORT

PRESS RELEASE

April 19, 2011.

GREENHITHE PARAMEDIC AND TRAINER – FROM AIRBORNE EMERGENCIES IN ARIZONA, TO GETTING THE BEST OUT OF AMBULANCE CREWS IN SOUTH LONDON. 

Video – career.

Video – Indian reservations and shootings in Atlanta.

When Greenhithe-based Paramedic and Training Manager Jonathan Smith says he’s seen more than most, he’s not exaggerating.

Jonathan, (age), stepped into the training role at patient transport service provider Savoy Ventures Limited after returning from the USA where he spent more than 20 years as an emergency medical technician and paramedic.

His career took him to Atlanta – one of the most dangerous cities in the world – where he dealt with up to four gunshot injuries on each shift, but also to the Native American Indian reservations, more often than not arriving by helicopter or light aircraft to tackle and treat victims of accident, illness or assault.

Jonathan now helps train and develop Savoy’s growing team of ambulance technicians.

But his induction to the profession was very different. After becoming a technician in 1990, he moved on to paramedic status in 1992, and in 1996 joined the airborne medical ranks, then in 2003 gained his critical care flight paramedic certification – his number is 61 in the whole world.

“I started flying in Georgia, mainly around Atlanta, then went over to the Native American Indian reservations in Arizona, flying with the likes of the Navajo and Apaches – an amazing experience, because we first-responded in helicopters,” said Jonathan.

“Because of the distances out there, ground transport meant an ambulance could be out of its region for 12 or 16 hours, so even on helicopters we’d have our patients with us for an hour and a half. One of our helicopters working the reservations could make 125 flights a month.”

Jonathan explains more about his work in the USA in videos here:

Video – career.

Video – Indian reservations and shootings in Atlanta.

Savoy Ventures Limited is a private company providing patient transport and transfer services to NHS Trusts in the South East of England. Established in 2006, Savoy makes more than 240,000 patient transfer journeys a year. Savoy Ventures Limited is engaged by a number of NHS Trusts to carry out blue-light transfers, specialist wheelchair, incubator, bariatric chair or stretcher transport, notes/X-ray transfer, and movement of tissue between hospitals. Many staff are trained and qualified to Ambulance Technician level.

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley

im@pressrelations.co.uk

07788 978800

www.savoyventures.com