East Midlands Ambulance Service DVD

Have you ever thought about the problems faced by ethnic minority groups when they make a 999 call? Language obviously would be the first issue, but once we have overcome that, what about a patients faith or belief? The way a patient's religious sensitivities are dealt with by the Emergency Services is what we were asked to explore. A new initiative by the East Midlands Ambulance Service strove to highlight this difficult and sensitive issue even if the results were 'uncomfortable.' Our remit was to interview people that had recently called out an Ambulance and film how they had been treated and what questions had been asked of them. We also interviewed Leaders of the faith communities to see how they would deal with an incident at their Place of Worship. We were also fortunate to be able to film a family whose first language isn't English in a fictious scenario of when an Ambulance is called. The result was an amazing 15 minute film featuring community members, faith community leaders and paramedics in a very candid and far reaching presentation.
The film was to be used to launch a regional conference by EMAS called 'Summit on Faith and Belief.' In excess of 100 participants attended the conference from the Ambulance Services, Pacesetters Programme, PCT's, Faith Community Leaders, Community groups and interested individuals. The Dvd was very well received and was commended for its candidness and ability to reach the community at grass roots level.