we met with Lil Hardy from Quarriers charity in mid June, This was our first meeting with Quarriers and they were most interested in many of the activities the panel carry out on a day to day basis.

After finding out what they do we found that we have a lot in common in terms of our overall goals and objectives.

we feel that we have made a meaningful partnership and will meet on a regular basis.

At the end of June we attended the opening of the Scottish air ambulance, there were  2 helicopters and 2 planes we were allowed to enter both planes and helicopters and there were pilots  to answer any questions we may have had.

we were informed that there was over 100 million pounds of equipment on display. Scotland are the only country in the uK that the government funds the air ambulance service, this is due to the diverse nature of our country.

the Scottish minister for health officially opened the service.

It was a most enjoyable morning and we wish the Scottish air ambulance service every success in the future.

The new Community police officer Kirsty Murray visited our offices  in early June in order to introduce herself and find out more information about the Panel.

We asked her what her remit was and had a really good meeting, Unfortunately the meeting had to be cut short due to Kirsty’s other work commitments.

We hope to be in contact http://pted.org/Propecia.php with her soon in order to establish a sound working relationship for the future.

Ann Tobin visited our offices on a casual basis and invited us to the opening of the Air Ambulance service.

Ann is a great source of information and keeps us up to date on all things Ambulance related, she now knows where we are situated and is welcome to visit us any time.

she was really pleased with the article we produced for the Ambulance day at Falkirk.

At the beginning of June we had a meeting with Victoria from the above charity.

They have just moved into Scotland and were looking for some contacts and advice, we were recommended to them  by Engage Renfrewshire.

we had a very in depth meeting and learned a lot from them hopefully they too got a lot out of the meeting and we will keep in contact with them.

The Renfrewshire Access Panel received an exclusive request from the Ambulance Service to attend a show of new vehicles and give opinions on design and accessibility and make recommendations on how the system could be improved. The show was being held at the Ambulance depot in Falkirk, the week before attending the show the temperatures were 17c upwards, on the day we attended it was raining heavily and blowing a gale and was only 6c or as one would say “Bliddy Freezing” however this did not dampen our spirit only our clothes.

There were six new vehicles in total with chassis and bodies from various makers the technical representatives were excellent and talked us through the systems, we were free to explore the vehicles and it was a most enjoyable day.

We then went inside to dry off heat up and have welcoming cuppa, we were then asked for our opinions and we gave our feedback, but we all came up with same question why there is so little room inside for the medics to work we were informed that due to the amount of Hi tech equipment and oxygen and all the other vital essentials take up the most space, this combined with gross vehicle weight means they are working to full capacity. We were then informed that on many occasions they are asked to carry the patients wheel chair in the ambulance to hospital, this they have to refuse due to lack of space and safety reasons we were then asked our opinion on this we all agreed that and any crucial time lost loading and unloading a wheelchair could be fatal. The point of an ambulance is to get you safely to hospital as quickly as possible.

Overall it was a very enjoyable day even though the weather was naff but one of the things that sticks in my mind was that 6 miles of wire are used when building an ambulance (that’s lot of wire) and the average cost of an ambulance is £100,000, we thanked them for their hospitality then left wiser and warmer.