Today at the very kind invitation of the NWAS NHS Trust, the Bolton MRT attended the NWAS NHS Trust Annual General Meeting and Health Fair 2013 at Preston North End Football Club, Sir Tom Finney Way, Deepdale, Preston, as an exhibitor.
Attending from the team were our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, Equipment Officer (Water) John Fletcher, Equipment Officer (Stretchers and Ropes) Nick Berry, trainee members Jess Ellsmore and Michael Eddleston, Trainee SARDA Dog Handler Paul Chisholm and his trainee dog Bella, Paul Brain and Paul Copley.
They attended with two of our Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, callsigns ‘Bolton Mobiles 2 and 3,’ and our Incident Control Vehicle, ‘BM6.’
This years North West Ambulance Service’s Annual General Meeting and Health Fair held at Deepdale, Preston, demonstrated and promoted the vital services the Trust and its emergency and health care partners and other organisations offer the local community and Lancashire as a whole.
The day was informative, engaging, and most importantly, enjoyable, commencing with the AGM at 13.30hrs in the Great Room of Preston North End.
This was immediately followed by the Health Fair, starting at 14.30hrs at which we were present with a display in the Sir Tom Finney Room.
Trust Chairman, Mary Whyham MBE provided an opening address welcoming guests who then browsed the stalls and took part in the various activities.
There was an array of North West Ambulance Service display stands, profiling their campaigns and services and partner stands. These included:
- Stop Abuse Campaign
- Patient Transport Service
- NWAS Pathfinder project
- Team 999
- Welcome to NWAS including introduction to Foundation Trust Membership
- NWAS Community Resuscitation Team including Community First Responder stand, Heartstart and British Heart Foundation
- Patient Experience Team
- Learning and Development
- NWAS general information stand including other public health campaigns and NWAS related information.
A number of partner stands at the event included:
- The Highways Agency
- NHS Greater Preston and Chorley and South Ribble Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
- Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Healthwatch Lancashire
- Preston City Council
- Stroke Association
- Heartbeat Charity
There was also be a range of colouring and NWAS exercise books for children as well as an appearance from the NWAS NHS Trust mascot, PandaMedic.
A vehicle display in the Sir Tom Finney Stand car park directly outside the entrance to Health Fair included the following Trust Vehicles;
- An Emergency Ambulance vehicle
- Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV)
- Various HART vehicles
- PTS sitter vehicle
- PTS stretcher vehicle
External partner vehicles included;
- A Lancashire Fire and Rescue Pump Appliance
- A Lancashire Constabulary Patrol Vehicle (With Officers and PCSO Officers)
- A St John Ambulance Emergency Ambulance vehicle (From Manchester)
- Our three vehicles from Bolton Mountain Rescue Team
- Highways Agency vehicle
During today our display in the Sir Tom Finney Room was visited by a great many interested NHS Trust members who had been present at the AGM and also visitors to the event.
Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE met up again with NWAS Acting Director of Operations, Derek Cartwright, a very valued and long standing friend of the Bolton MRT, Garry also met with NWAS NHS Trust Chairman, Mary Whyham MBE and other senior members of the Trust Executive and Ambulance Service.
The Bolton Mountain Rescue Team would like to thank the NWAS NHS Trust Staff and Public Communications Team for co-ordinating and organising todays event, particularly Karen Fitzhenry, Communications Officer, Fiona Bateson, Membership and Engagement Officer and Andrew Vine, Communications Officer.
