title: Planning like an Olympian. How London Ambulance Service successfully handled their 'summer of sport'.
abstract: LOCOG Medical managed thousands of patient contacts across all the Games venues without our intervention. A polyclinic in the athlete's village had extensive diagnostic options, including X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging for athletes and the Olympic family. These helped limit the number of patients who needed transport to the ED. Although the delivery was seamless, there were "behind the scenes" moments in the final stages of planning that made us think. We received additional requests for ambulance cover at training venues that hadn't been planned for on short notice. In addition, the torch relay attracted bigger crowds than initially planned for. Some of the planning assumptions and agreements changed on short notice for various reasons. This meant we had to adjust our plans while also solving human resource issues that you would expect to see among a workforce of around 500 across a six-week period. As part of the National Health Service (NHS) ambulance service Games cohort, more than 500 staff were deployed across 18 venues and 30 days of sport in London. In doing so, they delivered in excess of 165,000 hours of standby and care, responded to nearly 1,500 Games-related incidents and conveyed 800 patients to emergency departments across the capital. After such an influx, it wasn't easy to return to business as usual. Officials with previous host cities had advised us that there would be a feeling of "what next" once the Games concluded. When I first heard this, I thought the opposite would be the case. I expected feeling relieved of overwhelming emotion as well as from the exhaustion of the long days. I do have to say that although this was the case, it's also true that there is a "post Games" come down. We had just been part of a fantastic summer of sport with a brilliant medal tally from Team Great Britain and Paralympics Great Britain that, of course, helped the euphoria. But we did feel real sense of uncertainty about what to do next. We had spent five years planning for it, lived it for the past six months and been part of it for the past 30 days. And now it was over. Overwhelmingly the experience was truly great. There was an immense sense of pride in achievement and participation on the part of every EMT, paramedic EMD, officer and ambulance service employee who helped deliver prehospital care at the Games. The Games and cultural events were a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were privileged to be part of that experience, to provide prehospital care during the Games and to be able to say we were part of something that inspired a generation.
authors.affiliation: London Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Killens
mesh_terms: D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D008131:London; D010934:Planning Techniques; D013177:Sports