Tag: ScotSTAR

Specialist SAS service celebrates 10 years of life-saving work

The Scottish Ambulance Service’s specialist transport and retrieval service (ScotSTAR) is celebrating ten years of providing life-saving care to some of Scotland’s most vulnerable patients.

ScotSTAR is a multi-disciplinary team of paramedics, nurses, advanced practitioners, and doctors supported by pilots working together to provide specialist care to seriously ill babies, children and adults across Scotland using specialist helicopters and planes.

In 2022/23 ScotSTAR provided specialist care for 3158 seriously ill children and adults with the air ambulance crews attending 4527 incidents – an increase of 10% from the year before.

Mum Amie Taylor, of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, said ScotSTAR provided an invaluable service to her very sick son, Jackson, who was born four weeks prematurely in 2022.

Jackson was placed in a ventilator and had to be transported from Aberdeen to Edinburgh with the help of ScotSTAR staff, Dr Mark Worrall, Paediatric Consultant, and Ashley Daye, Paediatric Retrieval Nurse.

School teacher Amie said: “The retrieval team take the skills of the paediatric intensive care unit on the road and knowing that these specialists were incredibly skilled gave us so much peace knowing that Jackson was being well looked after. I just want to say a massive thank you for how they made me feel on the day. We felt incredibly well supported and cared for.”

 “I am pleased to say he is a very happy and charismatic cheeky wee boy. He has been through more in his little life that some people encounter in a lifetime. He is strong, resilient and a fighter we are beyond proud of.”

Michael Dickson, Scottish Ambulance Service Chief Executive said: “ScotSTAR is an integral part of Scottish Ambulance Service and is critical to our ability to reach every part of Scotland.

“I’m delighted to be marking its 10th anniversary and I’d like to stay a big thank you to our staff who deliver this vital service for critically ill patients across Scotland, often in very challenging circumstances.

“They are all a credit to the Scottish Ambulance Service.”

Parents of two young boys injured in car crash donate £5,000 to SAS

A family whose young boys were seriously injured in a road traffic accident have visited the Scottish Ambulance Service’s Scottish Specialist Transfer and Retrieval (ScotSTAR) base in Glasgow to see a live demonstration of the new training mannequins their donation has helped fund.

Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity provided a further grant of £15,000 to fully fund the highly specialised mannequins, which help ScotSTAR’s team prepare for the unique challenges of retrieving small children, which cannot be fully replicated in adult-sized mannequins.

The ScotSTAR service provides emergency medical retrieval services (EMRS), neonatal and paediatric transport services, and the air ambulance for the whole of Scotland.

In January 2021, the two Kelly boys – Carson (9) and Calvin (6) – were seriously injured when the car they were travelling in skidded on ice and flipped twice on a day out in Glenshee, Inverness-shire. Both boys suffered head injuries and needed to be airlifted to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.

Dr Michael Gillespie and Dr Kathryn Bennett, EMRS Consultants, tended to them at the scene and put them into medically induced comas to ensure they were safe to travel to hospital for treatment.

Carson stayed in hospital for six weeks, whilst Calvin was in hospital for three weeks. They are both now back at school part-time.

Mum, Sheree, praised the care her two boys received from the crew who attended: “The boys were kept side by side all throughout their treatment from the air ambulance to their hospital stay.

“Dr Gillespie dropped by to the hospital a few times during their treatment and was actually there the first time they both woke up. He has always kept in touch with the boys.

“The boys have met Michael and Kat a few times now and have thoroughly enjoyed visiting the ScotSTAR team at their base to see the training mannequins in use.”

Inspired by the great care their boys received, Sheree and her husband Andy wanted to give something back and have raised £5,000 to date for ScotSTAR with future plans to raise even more.

Michael Dickson, Chief Executive, SAS, said: “We are so pleased that Carson and Calvin have recovered so well after such a traumatic incident.

“Our ScotSTAR team are an essential part of the Scottish Ambulance Service, providing the very best care to patients, often in the most challenging of circumstances.

“Many thanks to the Kelly family and Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity for their kind donation and support of our ScotSTAR team.”

Kirsten Watson, CEO, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, added: “It’s incredible to see how this young family harnessed a traumatic situation into fundraising that could potentially save lives through effective training.

“Their exceptional fundraising supports an awe-inspiring team over at ScotSTAR, whom the charity is delighted to continue supporting.”

Ten years on, EMRS still has STARring role in saving lives

emrs1The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Shona Robison, met members of the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS) and ambulance paramedics to mark the 10th anniversary of the life saving service yesterday.

Originally set up as a pilot with just eight volunteer consultants from emergency medicine, anaesthetics and intensive care backgrounds, EMRS now operates a 24/7 service across the country from the heliport in Glasgow with 27 consultants, and is an integral part of Scotland’s new national retrieval service, ScotSTAR.

ScotSTAR is the world-class national specialist transport and retrieval service for critically ill NHS patients in Scotland, which was launched in April this year. The £9.5 million initiative brings together the three transport and retrieval services: the Scottish Neonatal Service (SNTS), the Transport of Critically Ill and Injured Children Service and the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service with the Scottish Ambulance Service, which co-ordinates the teams using road and air ambulances.

EMRS doctors take the resuscitation room to the patient wherever they may be, working closely with ambulance crews on Service air ambulance aircraft, MOD/Coastguard helicopters and by road. The service has completed more than 3,000 retrievals since it’s launch in 2004. The team also responds alongside ambulance staff to trauma cases, serious accidents and major incidents in the Greater Glasgow area and beyond using their own rapid response cars.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “Critical illness or injury can strike anywhere, at any time, and patients can often be some distance from the essential medical treatment they need. Scotland’s Emergency Medical Retrieval Service have, for the last decade, provided these people with a lifeline.

“Over the last ten years, this service has meant the difference between life and death to some people – and it is important the heroic efforts of the team are recognised.

“Since the EMRS was initially established, it has grown and developed in to a national service that now provides care to patients across Scotland. This Government has supported that roll-out, demonstrating our continued commitment to providing a world-class dedicated transport and retrieval service to patients in remote and rural communities.”

David Garbutt, Chairman, Scottish Ambulance Service said: “Since its establishment in 2004, EMRS has proved to be a pioneering life-saving service, internationally recognised and now an integral part of Scotland’s new world class national retrieval service, ScotSTAR.

“ScotSTAR’s co-ordinated approach brings greater efficiencies and ensures there is consistency across Scotland for how our most critically ill adults, babies and children are transported.”

Dr Stephen Hearns, Clinical Lead, Emergency Medical Retrieval Service, said: “The EMRS service, which started as a pilot ten years ago, has proved its value as a specialist life saving service that delivers critical pre-hospital care wherever it is needed across Scotland, whether on a remote island or at the scene of a road accident.

“It is a fantastic example of cross specialty working with consultants in emergency medicine, anaesthesia and intensive care from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee. They work closely as a team with ambulance paramedics and Bond’s pilots to provide a first class service that meets the challenges of Scotland’s geography and rurality.”

On primary retrievals the EMRS team can provide advanced interventions at the scene such as intubation and ventilation, surgical airway, surgical chest intervention, joint and fracture reduction, blood transfusion and triage to the most appropriate hospital for definitive care.

ScotSTAR expects to undertake around 2,200 cases every year in Scotland where specialist, highly skilled, clinical teams are required to manage the care of patients during transport by air and road. These specialised retrievals are clinically complex and take much longer than a normal emergency response.