West Midlands Ambulance bosses are appealing for help from the public to identify a man who was at the scene when an ambulance was broken into, and vital lifesaving equipment was stolen.
The incident happened in the early hours of Monday 15th July in Shrewsbury as the emergency ambulance crew were treating a patient inside a nearby property.
The crew became aware of the break-in at just before 3.00am while they were treating a patient in Dogpole.
Due to the severe nature of the patient’s condition, the crew had to leave the scene and take the patient on blue lights to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
It was only once they had handed over to staff in A&E that they were able to assess what had been taken.
Shrewsbury Operations Manager, Jon Ostrowski, said:
“They discovered that a number of items of equipment that we use to manage a patient’s airway – mainly endo-tracheal blades and laryngoscope handles – had been taken.
“They are utterly useless to anyone but us as they are only used in lifesaving interventions.
“While the crew carry this equipment in their pack that they take to a patient, had they used that one and then needed another, it could have caused a significant delay and that could have had deadly consequences.
“Add to that; the crew then had to take their vehicle off the road so that a full audit of equipment could be carried out.
“They had to return to Shrewsbury Hub to pick up a second vehicle and so were not available to respond to 999 calls.”
The images have been obtained via CCTV cameras which are fitted to the ambulance.
More and more emergency ambulances are being fitted with CCTV cameras owing to the increase of instances where ambulances are being broken into, and ambulance crews are being assaulted.
The police would like to speak to the male in the image in connection with their enquiries.
If you recognise him or have any information about the incident, please contact West Mercia Police on 101 quoting incident 42S of 15th July 2019 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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