Further to ours ’news’ articles of the 10th / 17th February 2010 and 5th March, this morning a fourth group of team members had their assessment regarding the use of AEDs within the team.

As well as providing the team with Automatic External Defibrillator units (AEDs or “defibs” used to try to restart a person’s heart when they have suffered cardiac arrest) for each of the team’s Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, for which we are extremely grateful, NWAS recently extended this support yet further. They kindly provided callout list team member and Medical Equipment Officer Mark Scott with training and teaching materials to be able to deliver and assess the NWAS First Responder course: Basic Life Support and AED. Mark, a qualified teacher and university manager, is also able to undertake this training for the staff of the University of Bolton where he is Principal First Aider.

The course begins with a lecture presentation including video footage, followed by demonstrations and practical skills development, then an assessment to NWAS standards. Successful candidates receive a NWAS First Responder Certificate.

A fourth group of 7x team members had their practical assessment this morning and happily all were successful. A last group of three Call Out List members and one Probationary member will undergo this assessment in the coming days until every team member is qualified to this level. (At present we have 41x team members assessed to this stringent level at present)

This is believed to be the only such arrangement in UK Mountain Rescue, and is clear evidence of the continuing relationship we enjoy with our colleagues in the North West Ambulance Service, to whom we offer our sincere thanks once again.

Please also see ’news’ items dated 10th / 17th February 2010 and 5th March 2010.