Ambulance

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Documentaries

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Documentary series taking a detailed look at ambulance services.

Life and death decisions on the frontline. From control rooms to the crews on the street, meet the people making sure every second counts.

Series 11

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Simulcast of network BBC One in high definition. From 03/11/2010

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Christopher Eccleston

Simon Ford

Peter Wallis-Tayler

Tasha McLintock

James Robinson

Dan Nightingale

Ambulance: Series 11: Episode 5

Episode 5

BBC One - Ambulance, Series 11, Episode 5

The ambulance service face the threat of a nerve agent.

An urgent call from someone threatening to use a nerve agent against the emergency services leads to a major incident standby being declared.

At the start of the night shift, the North West Ambulance Service responds to an urgent call for a patient threatening use of a nerve agent. A major incident standby is declared, and multiple resources are dispatched to the scene, including two ambulances, a decontamination special operations response team, the hazardous area response team, and Mike, an advanced paramedic.

Whilst the service deals with the incident, six miles away in Burnley, crewmates Debbie and Rachel are dispatched to a 75-year-old male who has been kicked in the head. The crew arrive on scene to find the patient at home and unharmed, but struggling with loneliness and living in unsuitable conditions. The crew arrange a vulnerable adult safeguarding referral to try and get him the most appropriate support.
In control, duty manager Kayleigh continues to manage the 12 resources on scene, dealing with the major incident. The queue of calls is growing rapidly with 120 patients now waiting for an ambulance, including a category 1 call for a woman in labour. While resources race to the scene, the baby boy is born while call handlers offer advice over the phone.

Blackpool-based crew Richard and Keeley are urgently diverted to a patient not breathing, and arrive to assist another crew in performing CPR on the patient. After successfully getting the patient’s heart beating again independently, the crew work quickly to get the patient to hospital so he can be treated by cardiac specialists.
Eight hours into the shift and crewmates Debbie and Rachel are dispatched to a 70-year-old male cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy. It’s a story close to emergency medical technician Rachel’s heart after two years battling cancer herself.

In Blackpool, Keeley and Richard are dispatched to a 24-year-old male suffering with palpitations after recovering from meningitis. The patient shares how difficult his journey back to full health has been, and how he feels forgotten about, as he is left awaiting further tests and appointments from the overstretched NHS.

On Friday night the same crews return for another 12-hour shift. Richard and Keeley’s first patient of the night is a 91-year-old female, who is fighting for breath. While on scene with the patient, they learn of her colourful past running a B&B in Blackpool, and working in a cigarette factory.

An emergency call is received from the police for a 12-year-old suspected suicide. Debbie and Rachel immediately give up their break to urgently respond to the incident. En route, the crew learn the call is a hoax and are stood down. The ripple effect of the hoax is felt across the service, and frustrations are shared among the team. Meanwhile, in Blackpool, Keeley and Richard are dispatched to a 13-year-old male who really has taken an overdose.

This episode highlights the growing number of patients who have been left to endure the pain of lengthening NHS wait lists for hospital appointments and referrals. We follow the ambulance service as they step in to care for those who feel most forgotten, working tirelessly to help patients access the most appropriate services and provide comfort in a time of great uncertainty.


Ambulance: Series 11

BBC One

Bafta-winning documentary series following the North West Ambulance Service.

The Bafta award-winning series returns to the north west at a time when the NHS is facing the twin crises of unprecedented strikes and growing waiting lists.

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