Busy Week for New Hazard Team

The ambulance service's new hazard response team have told Heart they've had a busy first week

The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust's Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) started responding to emergencies on Monday 12th July from their base in Ashford.

So far, members of the team have responded to emergencies including assisting an Ashford ambulance crew at an incident on a building site in the town where a man was experiencing breathing difficulties on scaffolding, assisting Kent Fire and Rescue with a shoreline rescue in Herne Bay, attending a major fire in Staplehurst and an RTC in Higham in which a vehicle had overturned, as well as responding to a number of immediately life threatening Category A calls.

Members of SECAmb’s HART have been recruited and trained in the use of specialist equipment and vehicles which will enable them to safely treat patients in the ‘hot zone’ of a major incident or at other incidents with environments such as smoke-filled buildings or where potentially dangerous materials are present.

The team will work closely with other emergency services at serious incidents and in high-risk environments to provide improved life-saving support, triage and treatment.


SECAmb HART Manager Matthew England said: “SECAmb HART has already been assigned to a number of incidents which made use of their additional skills. After all the training the team is now ready to respond quickly to major incidents and other incidents with hazardous environments across the region. Everyone in the team has worked extremely hard to get to this stage but this is where the real hard work begins. I know all the HART members are looking forward to making a difference by working with their colleagues in SECAmb and with their fellow emergency services.”