Milestone reached in supporting NHS
TO date (June 6) 12,500 miles have been covered by volunteers from the Devon and Cornwall 4x4 Response group (DC4X4R) delivering over half a million items of PPE and carrying out almost 250 tasks for Devon NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and Voluteer Cornwall during the crisis. This has been the largest and longest deployment the group has ever undertaken and is still ongoing. The group, which has approaching 90 members across Devon and Cornwall, has been working with the Local Resilience Forums and Devon and Cornwall Police to provide logistical support to frontline NHS sites and carers of vulnerable adults and children across the two counties. None of this would have been possible without the dedication of the Groups Control Team of ten controllers who have used their local knowledge and skill to ensure that the tasks issued to the Groups Responders are managed and supported in the most efficient way. The control team have been working from 7.30 am to 7.00 pm at night, seven days a week since the crisis started. The Control Manager and Liaison Officer have provided additional out of hours cover to ensure that no requests for assistance has been missed. The Training Team have also been busy providing over 280 hours of online video training sessions to members and new recruits so that they are fully conversant with the Groups ‘Longbow’ call out App, its ‘Zello Works’ communication system and on how to assist the emergency services with traffic management and temporary road closures.