I had to get out of be as soon as the alarm went at 6.30 this morning, as I was off for the first of my two days at Cheltenham Races, and I was being picked up outside the house at 8.00am. I had to get all my cycle responder kit on, and also pack up my other uniform in case I was needed to do other duties instead. Had time for a piece of toast on the way out the door, and then the car arrived to collect me.
We got to the racecourse in plenty of time before the briefing, and the first job was to check the bikes over. The only issue with my bike was that it was covered in mud, so I volunteered to make a cup of tea, while someone else cleaned it for me !
Cycle response units are a fairly new initiative in Gloucestershire St John Ambulance, but they are really useful resources at large events with big crowds. We can get through traffic jams where ambulances would get delayed, and can carry more kit, and move faster than a foot patrol.
Once the bike checks were completed, we went into the first aid post and listened to the duty briefing, and then with the callsign "Charlie One" we were off on patrol around the North coach park. We watched the steam train arrive at the station, then headed back up the hill to go on standby near control.
After our time on standby, we were sent on patrol of South car park, but decided to take a detour into the "Best Mate" enclosure, to have a chat to one of the ambulance crews. We left our bikes in the charge of some stewards, and went in. Just inside the gates was the big red bus belonging to "The Sun". We went over and managed to get some free beanie hats. They also had a model horse there, which we decided we would sit on for a laugh. While we were sat there, a Sun photographer came out of the bus, and took some photos of us with some "The Sun" girls draped over us ! Its a tough job !
No emergency calls for us all morning, so at 1pm we are sent up to the emergency workers marquee for lunch. It was really nice with soup, stuffed tomatoes and vegetables, followed by fruit. After lunch we went on standby at the first aid post for a while, before resuming our tour of the car parks.
Again we managed not to get any calls, and soon it was time for shift change, so a new crew were on the bikes and I joined a foot patrol team, walking round the crowd areas. Before long we had a call to one of the bars, where a 41 year old man had injured his knee after jumping over a bin! I assessed the injury, and the knee was clearly dislocated, so called for an ambulance to come and transport him to the medical center. There was a bit of confusion on the radio, and somehow there was quite a delay in getting the patient removed from the bar, and it ended up with us pushing him on the trolley to the medical center, rather than via an ambulance. The doctor assessed the patient and decided he would need hospital treatment, so he was loaded into an ambulance and transported off site- this was the only patient I treated during 10 hours on duty.
It was very quiet today with only about 30 patients treated, so this could be the lull before the storm and tomorrow could be really busy.
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