Terry Carter of AoFA and CESV volunteers 

help the TRNC Emergency Services

By Chris Elliott

Recently an old friend and founder of the Civil Emergency Service Volunteers (CESV), Terry Carter was here in North Cyprus on behalf of the Association of First Aiders (AoFA) to lend a helping hand with training being given to the TRNC Emergency Services by CESV.

Since he was last here in North Cyprus helping CESV and carrying out certification of trainers, Terry has kept in close contact with Steve Collard the Operations Director of CESV and the TRNC Emergency Services and he was invited by the Health Ministry of the TRNC to put a training package together for the TRNC ambulance drivers to upgrade their status and this is what he had to say about his recent visit.

“The Training sessions went extremely well and all objectives were met and all the ambulance drivers are now trained Emergency Medical Technicians.

 The training team including CESV make-up and “casualties” made the whole experience a memorable one something that they should be proud of and as a result of this course other agencies have requested training.

I am still Training Advisor on Pre-Hospital Critical Care for the TRNC and hopefully will be running advanced courses on my return in August/September.”

Sadly Terry was only here for two weeks but the training continued for the Emergency Services and this is what Steve Collard had to say at the end of a period of very hard work for him and his CESV volunteers.

Terry, along with myself and Andy King from CESV put together a four day course based on the UK First Aid at Work Course and under the guidelines of the Association of First Aiders,

There have been three courses, all lasting four days. The first was held on the 21st of April which was attended by 33 drivers. Most were from the TRNC Ambulance Service and a small group of medical personnel from other services. The number of students grew weekly until the last week saw the CESV members training 39 students! We were initially told that a total of 60 staff would be on the courses – it would appear word of the training being given has spread and other agency’s have sent staff for training and assessment on the program.      The team from the CESV delivered the course and gave practical demonstrations. These were followed by scenarios in which the staff attending the course had to show the practical skills they had been taught. This also provided time for the trainees to ask questions which arose as a result of the “hands on” training.

 Many areas of training were covered including primary and secondary surveys, dealing with conscious and unconscious patients, bandaging open and closed wounds and fractures. Another very important aspect of 1^st aid training was covered when members of the CESV showed the correct way to remove a crash helmet, position a neck collar and transfer the casualty onto a spine board. Most of the practical skills needed by an EMT were demonstrated and practised by those present.

The training culminated with the students being divided into groups. Each group then had to work their way around various scenarios where each and every member had to demonstrate the skills they had learnt, whilst being observed and assessed by qualified CESV trainers. CESV members who have been trained to make up very realistic wounds added a bit of blood and gore to various “casualties” in this last session, adding a very realistic touch. This also gave the crews time to show the skills that had been learned during the week.

The Under Secretary of Health, Dr. Omer GUR; and Yeşim Kubilay from the Ministry of Health and Dr’s Avci and Kenan, who are on the joint committee overseeing the new training programme for the ambulance teams and Aysin OZTRAK, the head of the TRNC fire Department came to see how the training was progressing.

Drivers both established and new to the service have taken part and the majority have shown a great deal of enthusiasm in the classroom and in practical demonstrations.

The training has been a great success and the team of CESV volunteers have been asked to arrange more training with the ambulance and fire service and have been invited to help with other services in the TRNC.

They say pictures can speak a thousand words so we have prepared a video below that gives some insight into the collective efforts by Terry of AoFA and Steve and his CESV Volunteers in giving what may be life saving training to individual members of the TRNC Emergency Service which will continue in the future when we will bring you more information.

If anyone is interested in the level of training that has been achieved by any member of the CESV team please contact CESV.adm@gmail.com and they will be more than happy to provide you with any information you require.

You can also find out details of the valuable work the CESV do on their website click here www.cesvtrnc.com