CRHnews - Nicky Smith lands Essex Air Ambulance Broomfield Hospital

• Report rights infringement
• published: 25 Nov 2011
• views: 3573

FABSISTERS Amazing vids, rich talent brilliant show, Wonderful! A tropical storm failed to faze former RAF Air Sea Rescue pilot Nicky Smith who guided her yellow and white Explorer in for a perfect landing, bringing with her registrar Dr Imogen Bowring and paramedic Dan Firmin. Viewers may not be able to see the rain lashing down, one spot appears to the left of my camera lens, but you can hear the old wind blowing - however, by the time the chopper was due to go the good old British weather changed like the wind and it became a blue sky afternoon. Broomfield Hospital's £1.25 million helideck, specially built to land Essex (filmed) and Herts Air Ambulances, is reaching for the skies. Nicky, who once did the same job now carried out by Prince William, said: "This is a very welcome facility bang smack in the middle of the county, most places where we land there is nobody to look after us. "So it's fantastic when we come into land and see all the day-glo jackets. We know that, if we have a problem, it's going to be dealt with." Since going operational in 2011 the hospital's landing deck has become one of the best in the country. Operations boss Steve Nunn, 53, who served in the Army Air Corps, is the guy supervising this non-emergency 'waving the flag' exercise in front of the media. Steve has channeled 18 years' experience with the Army Air Corps into running the state-of-the-art rooftop pad 55ft above ground level. "It's been a dream come true for me. I am proud to say the high- tech communications and fire-fighting kit we have here is far superior to most other helideck operations," he told the media. It's a bit like a helideck on a North Sea oil rig or a Royal Navy ship, and comes under the same regulations." Steve is also a qualified firefighter who once flew in Scouts, Lynx and Gazelles before retiring as a Sergeant Major. He also worked with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service at a London hospital before joining Broomfield 13 years ago. Steve began helping to plan the new helideck when the ground- level landing pad in the hospital grounds closed in 2005, when work on the new hospital wing began. It meant emergency patients had to be taken to Boreham Airfield before being transferred to hospital by land ambulance - losing time in a life or death situation. Steve is supported by senior helideck fire officers Jim Seager, 57, of Brentwood, and Tony Devenish, 54, of Great Leighs. Jim was senior helideck fire officer at The Royal London Hospital for 10 years, while Tony was a Chelmsford firefighter with 30 years' experience. The top trio, employed by the Mid Essex Hospitals NHS Trust, run the rescue and firefighting service that manages weekday landings between 8am and 4pm. "Every morning we declare to a national helicopter and landing website that the deck is open - we are only the second helideck to have that privilege, out of the seven in the UK," Steve said. Larger helicopters like Sea Kings will have to land at Boreham Airfield or in an open space near the hospital. There has been two drops since it became operational, with both patients attending the burns unit. Volunteer Steve has also built a team of 14 volunteer firefighters, summoned by pagers, who work at the hospital in other capacities, including nurses, clerical staff and midwives. Chelmsford-born porter Ray Marshall, 47, said: "It's a huge difference to my normal duties of transferring patients' notes from one department to another, I love it!" All the tunes are royalty free by the talented Kevin MacLeod Amazing Grace,Eternal Hope, At the Shore, Take the Lead, Windswept, Five Armies and you can find out about Kevin amazing talent, go to http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-fr...