Sponsor a new kit bag for a member of our crew

Earlier this year we launched our personal protective equipment appeal where we told you about the emergency measures we had to introduce. With your fantastic support, we were able to protect our crews and safeguard our service. As the lockdown now eases, the need for our work is increasing, and it is truly thanks to you that our crews are still able to respond safely to the calls they receive every day.

Richard Hindson and the Operations Team continue to refine the new measures to ensure the long-term safety of our pilots, clinicians and patients. This involves investigating new technology to improve decontamination, both before and after missions, but it also means that some projects that were suspended when Covid-19 hit are being started up again with a new urgency.

Keeping Corona off the kit

One such project is a comprehensive review of our crews’ kit bags. In photos, or on the Emergency Helicopter Medics TV series, you may have spotted our clinicians carrying two large rucksacktype bags, one blue and one red. Weighing an impressive 15kg each, these contain all the essential equipment and medicines they need for any eventuality. Aside from our patient monitors, kit bags are the most important items our crews carry, and after fi ve years they are due for a review. For one thing, the equipment we use has changed, but more pressing is that the current design – in which the whole bag is opened to access the particular kit our crews need within – presents a signifi cant risk of cross-contamination in light of Covid-19, with multiple touch points.

A new design for a new environment

A team of our clinicians has developed a new design using individual compartments for specifi c modules (the pouches inside the bags that contain all the kit and medicines for diff erent types of intervention). The material will be compliant with IPC (Infection Prevention and Control) standards. This ‘grab and go’ system will allow crews to locate the correct pouch without having to open the whole bag, considerably limiting exposure of the rest of the kit, and speeding up turnaround after each mission. Being able to access equipment without opening the whole bag will also free up valuable room inside the helicopter when treating patients mid-flight.

The bags also need to be extremely strong and durable. When accessing the scene of an incident, our teams often have to carry the kit bags over or under obstacles such as fences or ditches, depending on where they have landed.