Busy day in Casualty. 1:76 scale/OO gauge diorama.
Diorama - Mossend District General Hospital. Built using Kingsway Models kit of Holby Accident & Emergency department from BBC show Casualty.
Depicted in this layout is Mossend’s Emergency Department, with the public entrance in the centre and doors direct to the Resuscitation area and Ambulance only entrance to the right by the marked bays. The two bays closest to this door are marked as “Resus Only” and are designated for ambulances who have called ahead with a Stand By call, pre-alerting Resus staff of their arrival. One of SAS’ Mercedes Sprinter vehicles is parked in the first bay, and one half of the crew is seen standing nearby. This figure came from a cheap multipack of generic pedestrian figures. After painting this one in all over white, I went on to use paint pens, including hi-vis yellow and silver for his jacket. Painting him into SAS A&E uniform. I have subsequently painted a number of other figures into this uniform, minus the jacket, and one figure who now wears the light blue of the old Patient Transport Service (PTS) uniform.
Mossend also has an Acute Assessment Unit (AAU) for same day and GP admissions, the door for this is to the left. Two Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) Urgent Tier vehicles are parked outside the AAU. Both of these models are code 3 adaptions of a general release. They have been given SAS livery to depict older style Urgent Tier vehicles. Urgent Tier are part of A&E operations but utilise a mixed crew of an Ambulance Technician as attendant (clinician) and a CERAD trained Ambulance Care Assistant from the PTS side of operations as driver. These crews respond to GP requests for admissions within 1-4 hours, in addition to inter-hospital transfers, urgent hospice admissions and more. Because the driver is emergency response authorised, and the Technician has Airway management and manual defibrillation training, UT crews can additionally be allocated to Immediately Life Threatening (red or purple coded) calls as a first response to be backed up by a full A&E crew with Paramedic onboard.
Parked in the centre of the picture are two further emergency service vehicles. The local Roads Policing Unit (RPU) or “Traffic Cops” are represented here with a Volvo V70 traffic car. Potentially linked to both this sleek Police car and the Sprinter van in Resus bay one, is the blue light BMW of the Trauma Team also parked in front of the Emergency Department.
Ambulance and Emergency Medical Services in Scotland are provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), a special Health Board of the greater National Health Service (NHS) Scotland. SAS provides these services throughout all of mainland Scotland and the Islands. Emergency Medical Services are provided by the Accident & Emergency branch, providing Double Crewed Ambulances typically formed of a Paramedic and Technician, but which can be formed of double Tech or Para crews. Single Paramedics in cars, motorbikes or bicycles are Paramedic Response Units, used to provide immediate pre-hospital care to patients, or treating and discharging at scene. Also part of the A&E branch is the Urgent Tier service, using crews formed of an Ambulance Technician and Care Assistant, Urgent Tier convey patients who have been urgently referred to Hospital. The patients General Practitioner can request admission within a 1-4 hour timeframe. As such Urgent Tier vehicles use their emergency warning systems less than standard A&E crews. Due to the presence of a qualified Technician however UT resources can be used as a first responder to immediately life threatening calls.
SAS also has an Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (ScotSTAR), bringing Medical and Nursing care to patients as they transfer between Hospitals. Scotland is the only part of the UK to provide fully government funded Air Ambulance services, with two fixed wing and two rotary aircraft. They are assisted by the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance who provide additional cover with two helicopters of their own.
Special Operations Response Team (SORT) provide an emergency response to complex rescue, CBRN, terrorist attacks and other such incidents.
Scheduled Care is provided by the Patient Transport Service, the non-emergency branch of SAS. Using a variety of vehicles from cars, people carriers, minibuses and minibus conversion ambulances, PTS provides transport to and from outpatient clinics, for planned admissions and discharges. Staff crewing PTS vehicles are called Ambulance Care Assistants (ACA). They are experts in moving and handling, whereas A&E crews frequently remove patients from houses using equipment such as carry chairs, ACA’s must be adept at taking their patients back up stairs as well as extrications.
As with the majority of healthcare in Scotland, ambulance and emergency medical services are free at the point of use. Funded by National Insurance contributions made by those in work, Scots are extremely proud and defensive of our NHS. We generally believe that everyone should pay towards the common fund to ensure no-one has their life destroyed by medical costs, as illness and injury are not a choice. Having worked in the NHS and with SAS myself, I have resuscitated a man having a heart attack, conveyed him to Hospital, watched as Coronary Care staff removed the blockage from his artery and left the man sitting up in bed in CCU. Knowing that he will be repatriated to his nearest General Hospital for Coronary Rehab and will go home to ongoing care in the community. That man could take time to recover, safe in the knowledge that no crippling bill or endless fights with healthcare insurance would befall him. That is our NHS, that is why we love it and cannot understand the US system.
Busy day in Casualty. 1:76 scale/OO gauge diorama.
Diorama - Mossend District General Hospital. Built using Kingsway Models kit of Holby Accident & Emergency department from BBC show Casualty.
Depicted in this layout is Mossend’s Emergency Department, with the public entrance in the centre and doors direct to the Resuscitation area and Ambulance only entrance to the right by the marked bays. The two bays closest to this door are marked as “Resus Only” and are designated for ambulances who have called ahead with a Stand By call, pre-alerting Resus staff of their arrival. One of SAS’ Mercedes Sprinter vehicles is parked in the first bay, and one half of the crew is seen standing nearby. This figure came from a cheap multipack of generic pedestrian figures. After painting this one in all over white, I went on to use paint pens, including hi-vis yellow and silver for his jacket. Painting him into SAS A&E uniform. I have subsequently painted a number of other figures into this uniform, minus the jacket, and one figure who now wears the light blue of the old Patient Transport Service (PTS) uniform.
Mossend also has an Acute Assessment Unit (AAU) for same day and GP admissions, the door for this is to the left. Two Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) Urgent Tier vehicles are parked outside the AAU. Both of these models are code 3 adaptions of a general release. They have been given SAS livery to depict older style Urgent Tier vehicles. Urgent Tier are part of A&E operations but utilise a mixed crew of an Ambulance Technician as attendant (clinician) and a CERAD trained Ambulance Care Assistant from the PTS side of operations as driver. These crews respond to GP requests for admissions within 1-4 hours, in addition to inter-hospital transfers, urgent hospice admissions and more. Because the driver is emergency response authorised, and the Technician has Airway management and manual defibrillation training, UT crews can additionally be allocated to Immediately Life Threatening (red or purple coded) calls as a first response to be backed up by a full A&E crew with Paramedic onboard.
Parked in the centre of the picture are two further emergency service vehicles. The local Roads Policing Unit (RPU) or “Traffic Cops” are represented here with a Volvo V70 traffic car. Potentially linked to both this sleek Police car and the Sprinter van in Resus bay one, is the blue light BMW of the Trauma Team also parked in front of the Emergency Department.
Ambulance and Emergency Medical Services in Scotland are provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), a special Health Board of the greater National Health Service (NHS) Scotland. SAS provides these services throughout all of mainland Scotland and the Islands. Emergency Medical Services are provided by the Accident & Emergency branch, providing Double Crewed Ambulances typically formed of a Paramedic and Technician, but which can be formed of double Tech or Para crews. Single Paramedics in cars, motorbikes or bicycles are Paramedic Response Units, used to provide immediate pre-hospital care to patients, or treating and discharging at scene. Also part of the A&E branch is the Urgent Tier service, using crews formed of an Ambulance Technician and Care Assistant, Urgent Tier convey patients who have been urgently referred to Hospital. The patients General Practitioner can request admission within a 1-4 hour timeframe. As such Urgent Tier vehicles use their emergency warning systems less than standard A&E crews. Due to the presence of a qualified Technician however UT resources can be used as a first responder to immediately life threatening calls.
SAS also has an Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (ScotSTAR), bringing Medical and Nursing care to patients as they transfer between Hospitals. Scotland is the only part of the UK to provide fully government funded Air Ambulance services, with two fixed wing and two rotary aircraft. They are assisted by the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance who provide additional cover with two helicopters of their own.
Special Operations Response Team (SORT) provide an emergency response to complex rescue, CBRN, terrorist attacks and other such incidents.
Scheduled Care is provided by the Patient Transport Service, the non-emergency branch of SAS. Using a variety of vehicles from cars, people carriers, minibuses and minibus conversion ambulances, PTS provides transport to and from outpatient clinics, for planned admissions and discharges. Staff crewing PTS vehicles are called Ambulance Care Assistants (ACA). They are experts in moving and handling, whereas A&E crews frequently remove patients from houses using equipment such as carry chairs, ACA’s must be adept at taking their patients back up stairs as well as extrications.
As with the majority of healthcare in Scotland, ambulance and emergency medical services are free at the point of use. Funded by National Insurance contributions made by those in work, Scots are extremely proud and defensive of our NHS. We generally believe that everyone should pay towards the common fund to ensure no-one has their life destroyed by medical costs, as illness and injury are not a choice. Having worked in the NHS and with SAS myself, I have resuscitated a man having a heart attack, conveyed him to Hospital, watched as Coronary Care staff removed the blockage from his artery and left the man sitting up in bed in CCU. Knowing that he will be repatriated to his nearest General Hospital for Coronary Rehab and will go home to ongoing care in the community. That man could take time to recover, safe in the knowledge that no crippling bill or endless fights with healthcare insurance would befall him. That is our NHS, that is why we love it and cannot understand the US system.