Ambulance service delivering equipment

SOUTH Central Ambulance Service has sent enough vital medical equipment to Ukraine to maintain a field hospital for up to two weeks.

This could potentially help save hundreds of military and civilian lives in the country.

A team of staff have volunteered their free time in recent weeks to co-ordinate a collection of decommissioned supplies and equipment from across bases in Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex.

The equipment includes traction splints, neck collars, back boards, tourniquets, stretchers, blankets, blast and field dressings, decompression needles, chest seals, bandages, haemostatic agents to stop bleeding and cannulas for types of intravenous access.

The supplies filled one full lorry and will be going directly to field hospitals to enable some of the most severely injured soldiers and civilians to be kept alive for up to 24 hours while they await emergency surgery in hospital.

The official number of civilian casualties recorded since the Russian invasion began on February 24 is 1,232 killed and 1,935 injured but the actual figures are likely to be considerably higher.

Kate Ellis, a paramedic team leader in Oxfordshire who has been helping to co-ordinate the SCAS response, said: “The response we have seen throughout the organisation has been incredible and we have now ramped it up further with the donation of medical supplies and equipment which we know are so desperately needed in the conflict zones.

“This will help to ensure people can receive care for up to 24 hours while they await emergency surgery in hospital, meaning there is the potential for this work to help save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.

“We estimate our volume of supplies will be able to supply one field hospital for up to two weeks and some of the equipment, such as the long boards and extrication devices, is of course reusable.”

In addition, another two lorries were loaded with additional donations from staff, members of the public, community groups and businesses from across the south as part of a large-scale donation effort co-ordinated from Didcot.

Ten heavy goods vehicles packed with clothing, food and drinks, blankets, toiletries, baby products, first aid equipment and medicines have now been sent. The latest three loads left on Saturday.