HART Hazardous Area Response Team Historically Ambulance personnel

HART Hazardous Area Response Team

Historically Ambulance personnel were restricted to the cold zones while Police and Fire retrieved casualties from the danger area.

“It is an indefensible position that Ambulance Services do not treat casualties inside a Hot Zone” Ministerial statement from the United Kingdom Houses of Parliament 2007

Ethos of HART To provide rapid assessment and clinical care at the point of patient contact within the hot zone, maintaining that care throughout their extrication and/or decontamination.

Response Triggers Mass Casualty incidents Incidents at height Flooding / Water based response Confined space Urban Search and Rescue Explosion/Fire – IED incidents CBRNe Incidents – including IDL Firearms Incidents Stand-by support to Fire Rescues Service and Police Colleagues and other Partnership agencies

HART is a specialist unit of the Ambulance Service providing: - improved initial response to all categories of incidents - triage and CABC interventions - advanced clinical interventions in hazardous environments - mass casualty equipment support - skills and equipment to deal with contaminated incidents - early Command Control

THE TEAM CARRIES A RANGE OF PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT(PPE) AND MONITORING DEVICES

HART USAR Paramedic Within each HART Unit there are paramedics specifically trained in Urban Search And Rescue - Assist LFB in the USAR environment - Clinical care within confined space - Patient extrication - Safe Working at Height (all HART operatives)

Water Operations All London HART operatives are trained as Swift Water Rescue Technicians - Clinical support to LFB & NGO responders - Instigate rescue independently - Search capability - Public relations (welfare checks etc)

Equipment HART carry modular equipment cubes for use in conventional and CBRNe mass-casualty incidents. – triage and casualty labelling – advanced airway support – control of life-threatening haemorrhage including dressings and tourniquets – vascular access

Oxygen Delivery Multi-patient oxygen systems are carried by operatives. If required a mass-casualty oxygen delivery system can be established from the cold zone into the forward (dirty) treatment area. Carried on ESV

HART Support to Incident Management ‒ Incident Support Officers (ISO) ‒ Radiation Protection Supervisors (RPS) ‒ National Inter-agency Liaison Officers (NILO) ‒ CBRNe Bronze Commanders

Multi Agency Interoperability – Working together on the Incident Ground

Working together – sharing best practice Police – CBRNe (SO 8 includes Expo) Fire – RRT (Rapid Response Team) DCU/RRT can declare an area safe whereas HARTs monitoring equipment is for personal use only

Thank you for listening Any Questions? Contact: Steve Catlett HART Operative/CBRN Instructor Tel: 0207 7832829