Joint working

Good morning all I hope you have had a good week. This weekend sees me covering lates 1100 until 2100. This shift normally brings a variety incidents and taskings.

Hospitals always seem to be busier over the weekend ( not a proven fact it just seems like it). As operations officers we liaise with our local hospitals to avoid and manage handover delays. East Dorset has two acute hospitals in our patch and this can often prove challenging. Our operations officers meet with both hospitals on a weekly basis to discuss any problems which arise and to work out solutions or changes to practice. These meetings are in addition to our daily contacts to deal with issues and potential problems as they occur.

The past few weeks has seen a large number of serious incident in East Dorset, which has seen joint working between all responding agencies. As more JESIP (Joint Emergency Services Interoperasbility Program) sessions take place over the coming months this will give the opportunity to train more commanders and refresh others in key skills.
JESIP ensures all commanders from the responding agencies use a common and systematic approach to command of an incident. All agencies will have their own roles and responsibilities at an incident but JESIP aims to ensure our initial multi agency response is more organised, structured and practised. Regular use of the JESIP principles at incidents and training exercises means that the principles are embedded into our every day practice and become second nature.

More information about the JESIP program can be found here www.jesip.org.uk/home

Regular meetings with organisations outside of our immediate teams also enables networking to take place and relationships to be built up which can only be beneficial to joint working.

The overarching aim of all our meetings, exercises and joint working at incident is to benefit patients and improve their outcomes by working together.

As always stay safe and don't forget it will be darker earlier due to the clocks going back.

Normal service is resumed

Sorry for the lack of blogs over the last couple of weeks, things have been a bit hectic at home and very little to report work wise.
Back on nights this weekend which will bring it's normal variety of incidents.
Movements and secondments within our team has opened up the opertunity for Lead Paramedic secondments. I had the pleasure of interviewing this week along with a college.The standard of applicants was high and all aquitted themselves well. Congratulations to the two who will be starting immediately and those in the pool for the new year. It is good to see staff develop and stretch themselves by taking on new roles or responsibilities.

Following  several incidents in our patch over the last few weeks please take care when on the road and remember driving is a privilege not a right. Several high profile road traffic cases have come to court  this week all of which resulted in lengthy bans and  upto dial sentences. However this does not undo the effect one action has on a family and neighbourhood.

Whatever you are up to stay safe.

Autumn is here

Another week gone and this weekend has seen me as operations officer for East Dorset.I have attended a variety of incidents to assist and support staff as well as monitoring the hospital handover times.
The beginning of the month also sees several regular audits and checks that have to be completed to ensure compliance with various policies and procedures,
As I write this the nights are starting to draw in and I am going to work in the dark. Traditionally the period after the school holidays in the run up to Christmas is a time of reduced demand , however this year that does not seem to be the case. Hospitals already have 'winter' escalation beds open that is if they have even managed to close them this year. The NHS is under severe pressure and we all need to take responsibility for our own well being  and health. Before calling 999 or visiting the local accident and emergency is there another service I could use? 111, the out of hours GP service, could I wait to see my own GP, a pharmacist or local treatment centre are all options to consider.


          



Please think before calling 999

Stay safe and have a good week.