Callout

This evening the IRT were tasked by Portland MRCC to assist South Western Ambulance on the Downs with a medical incident.

CRO's Kitching and Simmons attended and were quickly on scene assisting the ambulance service returning to the station in just over 30 minutes.

Half Century

We've now been involved in 50 incidents so far this year with the busy summer period still to come. If we look back at our busiest ever year last year, we chalked up our 50th call on 26th June; this year's 50th was ten days earlier on 16th. Looks like it could be another busy year...

We very nearly recorded our 51st incident last night, but more of that another time.

Whatever you are up to this weekend, be safe; the weather forecast for Swanage isn't great I'm afraid.

Worrying trend ?

Yesterdays incident at Studland saw the total number of incidents for the team hit 122, so what you might ask?

Well the last time we hit that many incidents was in 2006 and 122 was the year end figure and was the busiest year the team had ever had.....2010 , 122 and still 4 months to go?

So whats going on?

For the last 7 years we have logged our incidents and there does not seem to be any pattern, some years the weather is bad and that might mean more or sometimes less incidents?

Did the ash cloud at the start of the year mean visitors are staying in the UK?

Is the economy having an effect?

Has stopping accident prevention patrols got anything to do with it?

The list goes on, what I do know is that the demand on team has been very high and as ever supported by family, friends and employers we have continued to provide the service to the community.


Note: Since this blog was published yesterday we have had another 4 jobs.

Some reward

As I write this entry, our colleagues in the Operations rooms are returning to work after their 24 hours of industrial action over pay and conditions.

Whilst we (Coastguard Rescue Officers) are classed as volunteers, there is a small amount of reimbursement (or pay!) for our efforts.

The station gets about £11,000 a year to run, this covers the 100 + incidents we normally get, 2 hours paid training a month that we can claim for (we normally do the rest voluntary), 18 hours a month looking after and checking the equipment (not each! per station), 5 or 6 hours a month to do the paperwork and attend meetings etc.

So to give you an example:

On a call out, the moment you get paged, you get 3 hours pay;

3 X £5.52 (yes that's the national minimum wage rate) = £16.56

The incident could last 10 minutes or 3 hours, that what you get, however get called again within the 3 hours and ....you don't get paid again.

£16.56 perhaps isn't too bad for a disturbed meal or lack of sleep,however I forgot to say the tax man then has his chunk and as most of us are already employed, he taxes us at basic rate of 25%, so the final figure is.....£12.42 a call out

I think you might see why we are called volunteers.

Commitment

When the team get paged, Austen or I normally follow up with a group text message to ensure everyone is aware of the incident they are about to attend.

At last Sunday’s incident at Old Harry, the normal text message was sent,

“Dog incident at Old Harry”

Off we went and shortly after arriving, my message tone on my mobile went.

"Really sorry Ian, going to be delayed currently sitting on a beach in the Caribbean, will the Coastguard pay my mileage ?…Terry"

Now that’s what I call commitment.

Navigation to the Station.....Part 3

By now the clock has been ticking, it could be 10 to 15 minutes since you left the house, nearly there, Oh Broad Road Car Park, there is a little clue here, yes its a Car Park and those visitors don't like anyone overtaking as they think they are about to lose a parking space. Down to the entrance to the boat park and hopefully the attendant has done a wonderful job clearing the road, the last double bend and the station at last is in view. Into the building, kit up, wait for the others to arrive and ......here we go again, this time in reverse, but this time we can use the blue lights and siren to get us safely through the traffic. (The photo was taken this week, if only it was always like that!)

Navigation to the Station.....Part 2

The next challenge is the 3 sets of "puffin" pedestrian crossings we now have by the post office and down into Station road,round into Institute road and the "park and ride scheme", (sorry loading bay), the next challenge is the zebra crossing in the square which is often clear until you are about 1 foot away and once one person starts to cross, everyone joins in. After checking mirrors its off down the lower high street and through the various chicanes that appear whilst people pop into the shops, the nice thing here is that they are never the same twice! Hopefully there isn't a coach trying to come the other way outside the angling centre and its then down to the junction of Seymer Rd and another well known invisible zebra crossing which people seem to use these days.

Navigation to the Station.....Part 1

Its 2.30pm on a Saturday in August, the pager goes off, you phone in to discover a person is stuck on Ballard. Having grabbed your kit you jump in the car and that's the beginning of the challenge that most of the team face getting to the station. The most important rule is that we drive within the law, we are not exempt of the road traffic act just because we are attending an emergency, as with the fire and lifeboat crews we do have signs for our windows, however its often interesting watching the driver in front of you and seeing how often they look in their mirrors! of course they are not obliged to move over to let us pass but once they see the sign they normally do.