Introduction

The service is a Guernsey-based charitable company which operates, with the authority of the States of Guernsey, the Island's only ambulance service. It operates 24 hours a day, providing accident and emergency cover and paramedic response. As well as a non-emergency patient transport service.

The Service also provides additional facilities which extend the range of care beyond that of road ambulances. These include the Island's cliff rescue team, the inshore rescue boat services, a marine ambulance and a hyperbaric recompression centre. Most of these additional services rely on public donations for their funding. In addition, community schemes are provided such as training in health and safety related subjects, a treatment room open to the public, and the largest centre for home health care equipment in the Channel Islands.

Area of Operation

The Channel Island of Guernsey is a densely populated island 70 miles south of England and 20 miles west of France. This unique position presents many challenges, such as the inability to call on neighbouring services for assistance in times of high demand. 

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The population of the island can rise from 60,000 in the winter to near 100,000 at the height of the summer tourist season, and casualties can occur not just in Guernsey but on neighbouring inhabited islands, on ships at sea, or in inaccessible bays surrounded by high cliffs.

organisation

The service is run by a charitable company, The St John Ambulance & Rescue Service, which is registered in Guernsey and limited by guarantee, and which exists to provide a non-profit-making service to the public with the aim of ensuring that those whose lives are at risk or who are suffering injury or illness receive the highest possible standard of emergency care. 

Funding

The Service receives a grant from the States of Guernsey - the Island's government - in recognition of the fact that it provides an ambulance service which otherwise would need to be government supplied. The grant partially pays (typically around 70%) the costs of running the road ambulance service.

The remaining costs, including the costs of the rescue services such as the marine ambulance, inshore and cliff rescue are derived from a combination of charges, income generation schemes, donations and bequests.

ESTABLISHMENT

The Service prides itself on being a small but efficient unit, maintaining high standards with an efficient and versatile staff. Continuous 24 hour cover, 365 days a year, in all the ambulance and rescue functions of the Service, is provided by less than 50 operational staff (including officers), operating from one central ambulance station on the outskirts of the Island's main town, St. Peter Port.

Training

All operational staff are trained to professional ambulance standards in the UK, either as Ambulance Care Assistants, Emergency Medical Technicians, or Paramedics. Paramedics are required to be registered with the Health Professions Council before they may practice in Guernsey.

On completion of their initial training in Ambulance Aid, which takes place at training centres in the UK, staff undergo additional training in the specialist functions of Guernsey's service, including control work, local hospital and pre-hospital systems, specific driving needs and specialised equipment, to become qualified Emergency Medical Technicians. They also commence training in one of the marine or other rescue activities of the service.

Members of the Service's rescue teams are therefore either Paramedics or Emergency Medical Technicians. This means that trapped or injured casualties, wherever they may be, can receive immediate help from rescuers who have the diagnostic skills and practical experience as Emergency Medical Technicians or Paramedics and who can render appropriate treatment and arrange proper evacuation in full consideration of the patient's condition.

achievements

The Ambulance and Rescue Service has pioneered the provision of many facilities over 60 years in pursuit of its aim of saving life and reducing suffering, including:

• the first installation in the British Isles of two-way ambulance radios
• the establishment of arrangements for air travel of patients to the UK
• the pioneering of inflatable craft for inshore rescue work
• provision of the world's first marine ambulance launch
• establishment of a trained cliff rescue team
• provision of ambulance treatment rooms for patient treatment at ambulance headquarters
• organisation of the Island's blood transfusion service
• provision of a sub-aqua search and recovery diving team
• establishment of the first civilian recompression centre in the British Isles
• installation of the world's first electronic vehicle locator system
• establishment of the largest centre for health care equipment in the Channel Islands
• design and operation of the world's first mobile radar unit
• pioneering and testing the issue of radio transponders at sea
• establishment of a voluntary car service for the States of Guernsey
• the first service in the British Isles to install defibrillators on all vehicles

Present Services

The Service currently provides:

• A fully-operational, 24-hours a day, professional ambulance service

• Rapid response by qualified ambulance paramedics

• The world's only specifically designed marine ambulance/rescue launch

• A fully trained cliff rescue team

• A fast, efficient, inshore rescue service

• A complete hyperbaric therapy/recompression centre

• An ambulance treatment room, open to the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

• Emergency air ambulance arrangements to any destination

• Emergency oxygen supplies

• Facilities for quarry rescue

• Training in first aid to industry, commere and the public

• A large centre of health care equipment and medical aids for sale and hire to community nurses, nursing homes and the public