Caterham Key Workers

Caterham key worker parent Peter B (dad to Lucy) helped with a very special delivery in his newly assigned role as an ambulance driver. Peter’s normal role is with the fire service but he moved to drive ambulances across South London following a shout out to support the understaffed service at the start of the pandemic.

Said Peter “I’m working with a brilliant paramedic called Harriet, she does the medical work and I drive the ambulance. We were doing a stock take of the ambulance kit and Harriet was checking over the maternity pack. At the time I commented that that was one bit of kit I definitely didn’t want to have to touch.”

Perhaps inevitably, at the start of their next shift the duo got a call to help a lady in labour who was in trouble. As they arrived their help was in great need and Peter was required to support the delivery. Said Peter: “We were also worried about the dad and particularly the grandfather who was very stressed. We didn’t want something to happen to him too so I got him to go outside and direct traffic around the ambulance so he had a task to focus on. Ultimately the paramedic pair transferred the lady to Mayday hospital where the mum and the little baby girl were both healthy and well.”

“Reflecting on the challenges of his new role, Peter said: “One of the hardest things is having to deal with people all the time. In the fire service the focus is on making sure the public are out the of way on a fire call out. When you’re a paramedic it’s totally different as you need to be able to deal with people in very difficult circumstances – I think paramedics are very special people. Even when the worst has happened on a call they just get out there and do it all again and again.”

Asked what difference the Thursday evening applause for the NHS makes, Peter said: “It makes a huge difference to everyone working across the service. Morale is high but it’s tough, very challenging and not a nice place to be right now. There’s a real sense of team effort in the NHS. Even when you turn up at Mayday Hospital and you’ve had tough call outs, the hospital cleaners offer to help clean our ambulance before we go out again. That means a lot when you’re on a tough run of calls. There’s a huge amount of support for each other and knowing the public also support us carries people through.”

Thank you to Lucy for telling her teachers about this fabulous story and all that her family of key workers are doing! Lucy is just one of the pupils who has been attending school every day, including through the Easter holiday, whilst her keyworker parents perform essential roles. Like many of our keyworker pupils, Lucy’s day is long – jumping on the bus well before 8am and arriving home after 5.30pm. In addition to her hard work at Caterham, Lucy is in the national water polo squad too.