Critical Care Cars

The vehicles are maintained by local Volvo dealerships. They receive maintenance checks more frequently than at civilian cars. They also receive an annual service and a 12-week health check inspection. The cars may not do high milage, but they do ‘hard miles’ and they require at least one set of fresh brake discs every year.

The cars have air conditioning to keep clinicians cool and comfortable in the summer. The windows in the rear are tinted to keep equipment cool. The tyres change from winter to summer tyres. Summer tyres are designed to work to 7.5 degrees Celsius and can start to lose grip in the wrong conditions. Winter tyres, which we usually change at around the end of November, work better in wet and cold conditions. Also ready for the colder conditions is each car’s winter pack, which includes a heated steering wheel and seats, and a de-misting windscreen. This means clinicians won’t lose any time in getting to a critically injured or unwell patient through waiting for the screen to clear.

When at base, the critical care cars are connected to an electrical charging plug. This charges the medical equipment and automatically releases when the engine is turned on, creating an even quicker and safer start for the critical care team when driving to a mission.

We can’t use powerful industrial hot water cleaners on the vehicles as it can damage the graphics on the exterior. Some of these are reflective and essential for visibility so, instead, we use standard soapy water for cleaning.

We recently changed the name of our Rapid Response Vehicles to Critical Care Cars. You may see the old name used – or its acronym RRV – on some old collateral or in old online articles, but they are the same thing!