New home for ambulance and rescue teams in Rothbury
North East Ambulance Service has teamed up with its mountain rescue colleagues to open a brand new co-responding station in Rothbury.
The new station, in Coquet View, houses a team of community paramedics from North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) alongside volunteers from the Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team (NNPMRT).
The station was officially opened by the High Sheriff for Northumberland, Lady Harriet Joicey, at a ceremony on Monday, 27 January.
NEAS has operated a community paramedic model in Rothbury for 14 years. The model, which was ground-breaking at the time, sees a team of NEAS paramedics working within their community, undertaking GP clinics and responding to emergencies.
The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team, along with its sister team North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team, provide support to NEAS throughout the year to help it reach and treat injured walkers, fell runners, mountain bikers and other outdoor enthusiasts.
The rescue teams also offer vital resilience to the ambulance service for severe weather events. One example of this was during the Beast from the East in 2018, where volunteers provided invaluable round-the-clock support to both NEAS and Northumbria Police – from helping stranded motorists to supporting with urgent patient transfers – over a 96-hour period.
NEAS Chief Executive Helen Ray said: “It’s wonderful to be setting up a new home for our community paramedics in Rothbury and to be able to celebrate that with an official opening of our new station.
“Collaboration between our teams and other agencies in rural areas is incredibly valuable and, as such, it is a pleasure to offer our mountain rescue colleagues a home within our building.
“We know that our combined skills and approach make a real difference to our patients and staff during bad weather and when treating patients in challenging environments, as proven during the Beast from the East where volunteers provided a tremendous amount of support to our service and patients.”
Ruth Corbett, clinical operations manager at NEAS, added: “The facilities at our new station mean much more to our paramedics than simply a location to start and finish their day and take any breaks; it also provides them with a safe space to decompress following a difficult incident as well as giving them somewhere to study and conduct training sessions with other community services such as our fire and police colleagues.
“We already work closely with our local mountain rescue teams but being more familiar with each other’s equipment and protocols by being co-located will make for much better teamwork when we respond to an incident together in future, ultimately improving the care we are able to provide to our patients.”
Iain Nixon, team leader for NNPMRT, said: “Being located with NEAS in this new station means we have a base and a response vehicle located closer to where we have a significant proportion of our incidents, the upland areas of Northumberland. This enables us to provide a more responsive service to those in need.
“Another great advantage of being co-located is that we get to know each other better in terms of knowledge and abilities. Building on this relationship makes us an even better team when we’re on scene together at an incident and this is a benefit we’re already noticing.”
Notes to editors
Notes to editors
For more information, contact the NEAS press office on 07559 918672 or email publicrelations@neas.nhs.uk
About North East Ambulance Service
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) covers 3,200 square miles across the North East region. It employs more than 2,600 staff and serves a population of 2.7 million people by handling all NHS111 and 999 calls for the region, operating patient transport and ambulance response services, delivering training for communities and commercial audiences and providing medical support cover at events.
In 2018/19 we answered more than 1.4m emergency 999 and NHS 111 calls, with almost 290,000 patients taken to hospital, 21,500 treated and discharged over the phone and more than 100,000 treated and discharged at home. Almost 76,000 emergency incidents were reached within seven minutes and more than 570,000 Patient Transport Service journeys were made. Over the year we responded to almost 6,000 road traffic incidents. 6,300 people were trained in CPR and defibrillator awareness and 167 new community defibrillators were registered.
About Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team
The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team (NNPMRT) provides a search and rescue service in the Northumbria Police area. The operational area covers 2,159 square miles and includes the whole of Northumberland and the conurbation of Tyne & Wear.
The team is affiliated to the regional body, North East Search & Rescue Association (NESRA), and the national body, Mountain Rescue England & Wales (MREW).
Calls for assistance include not only search and mountain rescue of walkers, fell/trail runners and mountain bikers in the uplands of Northumberland but also the search and rescue of missing children and vulnerable adults in rural and urban settings.
All members are volunteers and have a shared interest in providing a vital life-saving service. Members continuously train in all the core skill areas (hill craft and navigation, search, communications, first aid and casualty care, technical rescue, etc.) and are equipped to enable them to operate effectively in all types of terrain and in all seasons.
NNPMRT is solely reliant on voluntary donations and grants from charitable trusts. The funds generated cover the costs of: training; maintenance, replacement or upgrading of equipment and vehicles; general running costs including fuel; and, insurances. Fundraising is as continuous as training.
Mountain rescue team members are on call, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.