“When I came to the base for the first time, I brought my nephew and he stared at the helicopter and said, ‘I didn’t realise you work for the avengers.'”
The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) has welcomed a new dispatcher to the team following the charity’s move to providing critical care 24/7 in the North East.
Jordan Parker from Stanhope will be responsible for tasking the critical care team to incidents across the North East and Cumbria on a daily basis.
Jordan said: “I am so happy to be here, and the team has been absolutely amazing to work with so far. You really wouldn’t think that I was a new starter.
“I didn’t expect the call to say I had got the job but soon after my interview my phone rang, and I was told it had gone really well and I was offered the position.
“My family and friends are buzzing for me and when I came to the base for the first time, I brought my nephew and he stared at the helicopter and said, ‘I didn’t realise you work for the avengers.’”
Up until recently, the on-duty daily crew at the charity would be made up of a doctor, paramedic, and pilot, with another paramedic manning the air desk – one of the organisation’s most difficult tasks.
The role involves monitoring calls from the North East and North West Ambulance Service to identify which patients are in most need of GNAAS’ help and require urgent critical care interventions only delivered by the team in the region. The dispatcher then coordinates an appropriate response alongside the ambulance service.
The 28-year-old who featured heavily on the BBC’s latest series of the show ‘Ambulance’, spent three years with the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) as a communications support officer before coming to GNAAS earlier this month.
Jordan said: “I grew up wanting to become a paramedic and thought working in communications would be a foot in the door but after I got the feel for the control room, I really knew that this is where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.”
Andy Mawson, GNAAS director of operations, said: “Creating the dispatcher role last year has been a step forward to the charity as it has allowed us to have a team on the airdesk who is fully focused on tasking, decision making, and communications – it’s a huge responsibility.
“This frees up our paramedic’s time to focus fully on increasing our clinical impact across our service and improves resilience across the board.”
Jordan added: “I am really excited to pass my sign-off and really get stuck into the role.”
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