Video Speaker 28th August 2020 - Matt Metcalf, HART

Ambulance Service Hazardous Area Response Team

Club welcomed Matt Metcalf, grandson of a member, to talk on Ambulance Service Hazardous Area Response Team (HART).

Matt outlined his career route into the Bristol based HART team comprising university studies resulting in his BSc Paramedic Science Degree, followed by experience as a paramedic, then specific training which equipped him for his five years in the team, one of ten such teams in the country.

The London Bombings in July 2005 and the subsequent reviews of the emergency services response was identified as the stimulus for creating HART teams within the UK. The specific aim being to create teams of paramedics, to work alongside Police, Fire Service and Coastguard, with additional skills to provide Life Saving Care in situations where hazardous areas exist.  Such teams to be trained in the administration of a range of drugs and other lifesaving medical interventions.

Training in the use of bespoke Personal Protective Equipment, specific for a variety of hazards, was shown by the example of Matt working with multiagency teams in the aftermath of what has become known as the Salisbury Poisonings. A situation where the team were not aware initially of the nature of the toxic substances and where complex decontamination equipment was used over a three-month period.  

Matt illustrated instances where he had been involved with providing Medical Care where vehicles had become immersed in canals, individuals trapped in precarious situations in rocky seashores and in deep mud and silt in a river basin.

Away from threatening water locations, his HART team have assisted multiagency efforts to support people on cliff faces, inaccessible collapsed buildings and unfortunately more frequently, in complex road traffic accidents.

HART teams are called upon to support Security Operations and in response to Marauding Terrorist attacks, frequently accompanying Police Drugs Bust Operations where the risk of personal injury to participants from firearms and explosives requires on the spot, immediate critical medical assistance before passing injured to Paramedics for care and transport from the scene.

Working in Unstable Terrain, and where access is difficult requiring specialist vehicles and access equipment provided Matt with the opportunity of using visual aids depicting the HART team in floods, extreme geographical locations, often liaising with Air Ambulance crews.

Previously during the EBOLA outbreak HART teams have provided specialist transport of infected patients and in addition, in the current COVID crisis, have been integral team members constructing and providing working protocols for the emergency NHS Nightingale hospitals.

Matt’s talk generated a number of interesting questions, emphasising how the talk had opened Member’s eyes to a previously unknown specialist, highly trained and committed group of professionals within the Health Service.

Matt made it known that he is interested in furthering his career within the Air Ambulance Service and a speaker’s fee will be donated to that cause.