Ambulance staff are set to benefit from some of the most graphic training to help them should they have to deal with the real thing.
The National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU), which is hosted by West Midlands Ambulance Service, has signed a new contract with Amputees in Action.
The company, the UK’s largest provider of fully trained amputee actors for emergency services, the military as well as film and television work, provides actors who use their personal trauma experiences to enable graphic realism that is second to none.
Once combined with special effects make-up that includes mock injuries for the purpose of training exercises, the ambulance staff will be faced with horrific life like injuries to deal with.
Amputees in Action has over 300 trained actors and stunt performers and was the first agency to promote the use of amputees with real acting skills to put the ‘shock factor’ into simulations designed for all aspects of medical training.
The association, which dates back to 2008, encompasses the highly specialised work of the Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART).
John Pickup, Managing Director of Amputees in Action, said: “Our previous work with NARU and HART has been a fantastic showcase for the full range of our specialist capabilities in bringing a heightened level of realism to casualty simulations. It is particularly gratifying that NARU has now appointed us as their preferred supplier.”
Keith Prior, NARU Director, added: “Using the actors supplied by Amputees in Action brings a real benefit to the staffs who are training. The make-up, combined with the fact that the actors have genuinely lost limbs makes the injuries look so lifelike that they appear real. Thankfully we rarely have to deal with such serious injuries, but these training exercises give staff a real insight into what they could be faced with which usually results in excellent levels of learning.”
For more information about About Amputees in Action, log onto www.amputeesinaction.co.uk