Today the team journeyed to Broughton House, the location of the Emergency Control Centre for the North West Ambulance Service Cumbria & Lancashire regions.

Paul West, Head of Clinical Operations for the North West Air Ambulance, invited the team to give a presentation to a course of six new dispatchers who will shortly be starting shifts on the “Air Desk” at Broughton ECC, where all calls for the North West’s two Air Ambulance helicopters are dispatched from. This same desk also liaises with Mountain Rescue teams when on joint operations with the Air Ambulance.

Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, Team Training Officer Elaine Gilliland, and team member Steve Fletcher gave a presentation on the type of work that Mountain Rescue Teams undertake across the region, including Greater Manchester and Lancashire, and how MRT and NWAA crews work jointly together on incidents to provide the best possible outcome for the casualties involved.

The presentation was followed by an interesting question and answer session.

The Mountain Rescue input was part of the overall training course for the new Dispatchers who are soon to start working on the Air Desk, and we wish them well in their new positions as they start (under initial supervision!) in the next week or so.

At the conclusion of this 90 minute session, Garry, Elaine and Steve were thanked for their time by Paul West and those present, with all three going on for an informal meeting and catch-up with Gill McGill of the NWAS Lancashire and Cumbria ECC.

The Bolton MRT puts great emphaasis on liaison meetings of this nature which help to further reinforce the links between NWAS and NWAA, not just on a local basis, but also on a regional basis between Mountain Rescue and our other emergency services colleagues.