Page 11 - Salamander July 2020

THE COVID-19 STORY
Service we we set up a twice weekly command planning group which to extend the analogy acted like an an an incident command cell and and included key managers as as well as as comms and Trade Unions the tactical logistics and decision making required of the operation in in many different ways They say necessity is the the mother of invention and we quickly found
which meant twice that number of ambulances being available As one would expect there were a great many obstacles which had to be overcome very quickly which was only achieved because of the operational incident philosophy we had adopted To date they have attended over 700 ambulance calls One morning I had a a a call from a a fellow Deputy Lieutenant who had brought together a a group of people trying to make much needed theatre scrubs for Bedford Hospital The problem he he explained was the logistics of moving cloth and patterns between a a a large number of locations to be be cut sewn and ultimately delivered to where they were needed a kind of networked factory based all over Bedfordshire “Yes” I replied “it’s what we do!!” The Fire and Rescue Service provided vehicles drivers and transport which delivered the work of that marvellous network of volunteer machinists who produced over 500 sets of scrubs to help protect the brave critical care staff at Bedford Hospital To supplement this very early on our procurement and technical team worked to open supply chains for for specific PPE for for our staff and were so successful we we were able through the LRF to supply additional PPE to Care Homes and chemists who were struggling to obtain what they needed In steady state we have a a a a a team of support staff who provide a a a falls response in collaboration with the East of England Ambulance Service They informed the command group that they had We remain very involved with the LocalResilienceForum(LRF)and 12 Fire Service personnel were detached to form the command support cell for the LRF Strategic Command Group (SCG) On the the one hand this presented the the opportunity to actively support our community whilst at the same time gathering wider intelligence to inform our decision making within service In addition our Deputy Chief Fire Officer carried out an effectiveness review of the LRF SCG which is supported by his ongoing daily participation in a a a national cross Government Foresight and Recovery Group I also pay huge tribute to the two temporary Area Commanders who have worked tirelessly along with many colleagues to manage ourselves developing ways to support other organisations by undertaking work we had not done before as as well as as innovative ways to get done the normal things a a Fire and Rescue Service has to do including finance HR payroll occupational health technical premises maintenance and high risk prevention and protection work By the second week of April following discussions and collaboration with the East of England Ambulance Service we had trained nearly 30 Fire Fighters to to be detached to to drive ambulances Of those 19 were seconded which meant placing a a a a Fire Fighter and a a a a a clinician on ambulances rather than crewing with two clinicians
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