His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales visited London Ambulance’s HQ to meet frontline staff and hear more about their experiences of providing high-quality urgent and emergency care to Londoners.
It was the second visit this week by the Prince to an emergency service. Earlier he had visited the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service with the Princess of Wales.
Prince William is the patron of the newly named Royal College of Paramedics. His visit comes as part of London Ambulance Service’s 60th anniversary celebrations and with his own experience of air ambulance, he was able to see what happens on the ground.
Pauline Cranmer, Chief Paramedic at London Ambulance Service said: “The Prince of Wales has a strong affiliation with emergency responders having witnessed first-hand the unique challenges we face on a daily basis through his roles as both an Air Ambulance and Royal Air Force (RAF) Search and Rescue pilot.”
His Royal Highness spoke to crews and heard how the Service is looking after the mental health of frontline staff. Paramedics also shared their experience of unacceptable violence and aggression from a small minority of patients and members of the public.
In the control room, His Royal Highness met Chief Medical Officer Dr Fenella Wrigley and Director of 999 Operations Stuart Crichton who introduced him to call handlers who take thousands of 999 calls every day.
His Royal Highness then met with mechanic crews at the Waterloo Ambulance Station workshop, where emergency vehicles are taken for maintenance and repair work, helping to keep hundreds of ambulances on the road 24/7. He also got to see the capital’s green fleet including the electric ambulance that has been on the roads since early in 2024.
Coming the day after Restart a Heart Day, Advanced Paramedics took The Prince of Wales through a lifelike demonstration of a patient going into cardiac arrest, with the help of state-of-the-art mannequins that can speak, breath and blink.
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