Friday 26th June 2015 – 10am. Steve Parry.
West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) has scooped three top awards at a prestigious ceremony held yesterday at the House of Lords in London.
The main focus of the Ambulance Service Institute (ASI) Awards is to award outstanding work in the out-of-hospital care arena and encourage and promote the highest quality of treatment and effectiveness of out-of-hospital care. Those recognised yesterday included ambulance staff, community first responsers and the military.
Presenting the awards, Baroness Browning, said: “What a privilege it is for all of us to hear these wonderful accounts of the bravery, professionalism and dedication of the people who will receive their awards today and of course the people in the teams they work for.”
The following citations were given for those award recipients from West Midlands Ambulance Service:
Steve Harris WMAS Motorcycle Unit – ASI President’s Awards
Motorcycle paramedic Steve Harris from Smethwick was presented with the ASI Presidents Award for his long serving contribution to WMAS. Steve has served over 36 years with WMAS and has worked an impressive 18 years on the bikes. Affectionally known as a ‘Forest’ by his colleagues as well as fans of Channel 5’s Emergency Bikers TV series, Steve was honoured for his outstanding service to WMAS, the motorcycle unit and the people of Birmingham.
Neil Ashmore and Sarah Lawrence – ASI Frontline Ambulance Persons of the Year.
Neil and Sarah were first on scene at a serious fire in Tipton in the West Midlands in August 2014. They were faced with a second floor apartment well alight when they arrived. The two occupants managed to leap from the second floor and Neil and Sarah immediately went to their assistance and started to treat them where they fell. However, they were forced to carry the patients to safety after the intense heat of the fire blew the windows out of the building. Neil and Sarah were praised for their bravery at the scene and have both been awarded the ASI Frontline Ambulance Persons of the Year Award.
Mental Health Intervention Unit – ASI Innovation Award
The Unit started as a trial scheme and has led to close collaboration between West Midlands Ambulance Service, West Midlands Police and Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust. The multi-agency scheme has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of people suffering a mental health episode and ending up in police custody. Since January 2014, the ‘Mental Health Intervention Unit’ has seen police officers crewed with mental health nurses and paramedics in a responder vehicle, seven days a week in Birmingham the Black Country as well as Coventry and Solihull. So successful has the Unit become it is now plays an active part in supporting vulnerable patients in communities across the main centres of population.
Ends