Casualty Care

Looking after a casualty before extraction to a waiting aircraft

All our full team members are required (at minimum) to undertake 8 hours of core casualty care training every two years. Our core casualty care training includes fundamental aspects of mountain first aid covering Basic Life Support techniques, primary survey, airway & breathing management, application of trauma dressings and immobilisation of limb injuries. Approximately a third of the team hold the Mountain Rescue England & Wales Casualty Care Certificate (MREW CCC), which is a 20 hour course, plus consolidation and assessment. This builds on the core casualty care training introducing more complex patient management in both trauma and medical illness.

The MREW CCC also introduces our team members to the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue MREW formulary including the indications, contraindications, interactions and side effects of the drugs we routinely carry. Many of our team members go on to attend further training, including scenario simulations, airway management, and wilderness medicine. The team is very fortunate to have health care professionals amongst its members, including doctors and pre-hospital specialists including paramedics as well as other qualified and highly experienced allied health care professionals and trainees from a wide range of disciplines.

We are constantly reviewing the equipment we carry, striving to get the right balance between weight, speed and providing the best care for our casualties. We strive to be on the cutting edge of pre-hospital wilderness first aid, ensuring our casualties get only the very best. We continue to work closely with Ysbyty Gwynedd’s Emergency Department who provide Casualty feedback as part of the Mountain Medicine Project. We are all extremely grateful for the support we receive from the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust and our colleagues from Bristow (and formally RAF Valley’s Rescue 122).

Water and medical scenario training

Extraction of a casualty with the wheeled titan stretcher

Dealing with a casualty on the hill