A day in the Life of: Pre-hospital Care Doctor, Miles Gandolfi

At Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT), our team is made up of dedicated professionals who work together to provide life-saving care. Here, Dr Miles Gandolfi shares a behind the scenes look at a typical day on duty.

08:00 – Arrive and change into flight suit in changing room

08:18 – Pack car and helicopter with kit. Devices checked to make sure working before packing bags each day. Electrical items taken off charge from overnight.

08:40 – We check all of the controlled drugs we have on base, and that we will use that day. Checking these daily is mandatory for us to make sure the counts are the same in stock, and to make sure that we have the correct medications with us when we go out on a job.

08:50 – ​Make sure that flight helmets fit, so you are not fumbling for one when a call comes in.​

09:00 – Morning briefing with pilots, weather and ‘NOTAMS’ (Notice to Aviation) are discussed. Unfortunately, weather so poor today that much of the day will be based in the car. We are now online and ready to respond.

10:00 – While waiting for a call to come through we have a host of other duties to perform called daily checks. Each day has an assigned bit of kit or two for a thorough check. Today it is the ‘big blue’ bag. We make sure each pouch is complete and nothing has expired.

10:20 – ​A film crew has arrived and is setting up to interview one of the doctors.

10:30 – Another of the daily checks is making sure the oxygen store has sufficient bottles for the week, and ordering more if needed.

​10:40 – Now that the daily checks are finished we can perform some training. We create a simulated scenario with our manikins to practise treating a patient.

​11:00 – I spend some time teaching one of our attached medical students about ultrasound and vascular access on a model.

​11:22 – Film crew are working with the doctor who came in on her day off to film some extra bits of walking to / from the aircraft to put onto their TV show.

11:30 – Both cars washed. It doesn’t make them faster, but it looks professional.

12:20 – Helicopter is still offline due to misty weather, hoping for it to come online later.

12:23 – A call comes in – we’re off on a job. Going in the car due to the rubbish weather.

14:25 – ​Arrive at hospital after treating the patient at scene and transporting them here by ambulance. We hand over our patient, do the necessary paperwork then start the long drive back to base. (My colleague Gaynor, the on duty critical care paramedic, and I stayed with the patient and our car was driven to hospital by one of the ambulance crew).

15:28 – ​Picking up fuel after driving back from the hospital. A long journey, and slow when not using blue lights. At least the car looks nice and clean!​

​16:30 – Arriving back at base, just parking into the garage. Weather is improving but with night coming in soon we might have to use nightvision goggles (NVIS).

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16:34 – Restocking the kit that we used on the job, so we are ready for the next mission.

17:10 – Car all restocked and ready for the next job.​

1​7:15 – Late lunchtime – meals have to be fitted around call outs and jobs on base.

17:38 – Second call out – by helicopter this time.

18:15 – We are taking this patient to hospital by road, so our helicopter flies off into the night sky leaving us to make our own way back to base​.

​20:30 – Helicopter and day kit all snug and put away, but no rest for the car. The night team has taken handover from us and will be using the car to respond all through the night with new, fully charged kit. We are hoping the car battery gets a chance to charge up a decent amount before they are called out.

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If you are interested to take a look behind the scenes and to potentially meet some of the crew, book a Visitor Centre Tour.

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