The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) has equipped its crew members with body-worn cameras to further enhance the standards of healthcare it offers.
From June 27th 2017, the charity’s clinical staff have worn discreet body cameras when on missions throughout the North-East, North Yorkshire and Cumbria.
The charity took the decision in order to share knowledge and experiences from cases of major trauma and serious illness throughout its area.
GNAAS has been approved through the Government’s Surveillance Camera Commissioner scheme, which provides a strict code of conduct for the charity to follow. This protects the rights of patients and ensures that any data captured is treated confidentially.
The data will not be shared with anyone external under any circumstances unless patient approval is granted. It will not be used for promotional reasons or for any purposes other than internal training.
Grahame Pickering MBE, GNAAS chief executive, said: “Our mission is to be at the forefront of pre-hospital care to give all of our patients the best chance of survival.
“This development allows us to share experiences in an audio-visual way that will continue to drive standards upwards throughout our organisation.
“It will enable all of our clinical team to experience the challenging rescues, advanced medical procedures and unusual scenarios that they might not otherwise be able to witness.
“Our patients and the wider public should know that this data is only to be used for GNAAS crew training. It will not be stored beyond 31 days or shared with anyone else unless we have the approval of the patient.”
The charity has produced a leaflet for patients about the use of body-worn cameras. It is available to download here.
To read more about the Surveillance Camera Commissioner, visit here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/surveillance-camera-commissioner
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