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VOLUNTEER 4x4 OWNERS URGENTLY REQUIRED – CAN YOU HELP?


ChrisW70

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Wednesday 22nd December – 12.10pm – John Hawker

West Midlands Ambulance Service, in support of NHS Warwickshire is appealing to members of the public in Coventry, Warwick, Nuneaton and Rugby who own 4x4 vehicles, to offer their services to help patients receive vital treatment at home.

Due to the current extreme weather conditions, volunteers who own 4x4 vehicles are being asked for their assistance to help drive nurses to patients who require treatment in their homes. These patients may include diabetics and those that needing renal dialysis treatment.

The ambulance service and hospitals are already seeing a large increase in calls. Any volunteers who can help nurses to reach patients in their own homes and continue to provide them with the care they require, can in turn prevent any patients from needing emergency treatment from paramedics or in hospital.

Anyone willing to volunteer should call West Midlands Ambulance Service’s Single Point of Access on; 01926 310 310 and provide the team with their contact details, their location and when they are available to help out. All help is greatly appreciated during the current extreme weather conditions.

http://www.wmas.nhs.uk/news/news_archive/december_2010/volunteer_4x4_owners_urgen.aspx

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Do they not have a 4x4 Response group up that way then?

Effectively, no.

There is a West Midlands group in the course of being established, but clearly they haven't been able to make contact with every organisation that could use them, and in all possibility they don't have the numbers of Responders required.

From what I've heard this exercise is to collect Names, Addresses, and Telephone numbers. I don't know when they aim to deploy the volunteers.

The only caveat I'll highlight is that people check with their insurance policy about whether volunteer work is covered. It often is, at no extra charge, and although an Insurance company might allow claims because of the negative publicity of penalising volunteers in times of need, Big Society, and all that, there is no doubt the risk of claims will increase if people are driving about thinking 'I must get through'.

Nationally, 4x4Response is a very young organisation, and there has been a lot of resistance from the established organisations who can make use of them. It's taken the snow over the past two winters to wake them up.

That's something of a generalisation :-)

Good Luck.

Edit,

It's just possible I've done my West Mids colleagues something of an injustice.

Posted '3 days ago', so the 19th, "We managed to get eight teams working last night helping West Midlands Ambulance Service from 15.00hrs yesterday till 07.30 this morning .... We have been stood down till 16.00hrs today. Have been asked to cover tonight and tomorrow.

My apologies to them.

Membership of 4x4Response means Responders are covered by the 'Response' insurance for the larger public liability claims, provided the local group have paid the premium :-)

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Only thing to bear in mind is the West Midlands covers a huge area, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands county itself. I understand the WM4x4R team are primarily Shropshire and north midlands based and could be some 60-70 miles from the locale of this plea and may be discussing a request from the WM Ambulance service for a completely different area?

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is there a team in gloucestershire that i could lend a hand too ? as i would like to give back to my community

http://www.gloucestershire4x4response.co.uk/ covers Gloucester and Worcestershire.

From the National 4x4 Response Group Register http://www.4x4response.info/?pid=groupregister

Good Luck.

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Edit,

It's just possible I've done my West Mids colleagues something of an injustice.

Posted '3 days ago', so the 19th, "We managed to get eight teams working last night helping West Midlands Ambulance Service from 15.00hrs yesterday till 07.30 this morning .... We have been stood down till 16.00hrs today. Have been asked to cover tonight and tomorrow.

My apologies to them.

To update this, with information from a member of the West Midlands team:

the West Mids Team are very aware of the ongoing requests from WMAS for assistance although, it is in fact, a request by the Coventry and Warwickshire Primary Care Trust who requested that WMAS publish the request. As such the request for assistance is for Coventry, Warwick, Nuneaton and Rugby. We are told by the Gold Commander that contact names and phone numbers are being taken for the Warwickshire area and individuals are being contacted if and when necessary.

WM4X4R have been working with WMAS almost continuously since Saturday (18th Dec 10) and have at this time responded to 257 individual tasks. The group, only formed this year, has been responding to as many requests as we can safely complete. We have taken the decision to ensure that we complete the tasks being asked by WMAS and the BADGERS Doctors Service and to do those in a professional and timely manner. To attempt to cover the ongoing situation in Warwickshire may lead to us overstretching our members and possibly causing potential Health & safety issues. It's better to support 2 users well than 5 users badly at this time.

So, volunteers in Coventry, Warwick, Nuneaton and Rugby are what is required.

Obviously it's a fluid situation, and in a week or three the story could be different again.

HTH

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