London Ambulance Service welcomes His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

London Ambulance Service welcomed His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to its Waterloo headquarters today (17 October) to meet frontline staff and hear more about their experiences of providing high-quality urgent and emergency care to Londoners.

His Royal Highness, who became Patron of the College of Paramedics earlier this year, met London Ambulance Service Chief Paramedic Pauline Cranmer and Chair Andy Trotter who took him through a tour of HQ.

Pauline Cranmer, Chief Paramedic at London Ambulance Service, said: “We were very pleased to welcome His Royal Highness to the Service and introduce him to our incredible crews who are there for Londoners during their time of greatest need.

“The visit marked a milestone in our organisation’s 60th year and gave His Royal Highness the opportunity to meet frontline staff and learn more about our lifesaving work.

“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 at our wellbeing café 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.

Staff in the control room took 12,000 more 999 calls last month compared to the same period last year – that’s more than 400 additional 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 was also shown our fleet of green vehicles, including the world’s first, purpose-built all electric ambulance, an electric fast response car, and a mental health ambulance.

Advanced Paramedics then 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.

In 2021, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met teams from London Ambulance Service to hear about what it was like responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on their mental health and wellbeing.