Paramedic captures emergency care in Covid-19 era

South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) Paramedic and Photographer, Emma Williams, has launched an online gallery of a project she undertook in Summer 2020 to capture what it was like delivering emergency ambulance care in the COVID-19 era.

Emma, who has worked for first Oxfordshire Ambulance Service and then SCAS for 26 years, qualified as a paramedic in 2000 having started her career in the emergency operations control room. She began to take her photography seriously around eight years ago and is completely self-taught.

"These were extraordinary times as the first wave of COVID-19 arrived in the UK and as a photographer as well as a paramedic, I wanted to preserve forever this snapshot of what it was like continuing to deliver compassionate, high-quality emergency care whilst making sure both we and our patients stayed safe from this terrible virus. A heartfelt thank you to the patients and colleagues who allowed me to share their stories."

With galleries and other cultural institutions closed, it is fitting that Emma's work is being released online to a global audience. She has developed a distinctive, cinematic style to her photography which comes from her use of a Canon 5D camera combined with a freelensing approach - a method of shooting with the lens not physically attached to the camera.

The online gallery is available at www.scas.nhs.uk/emergency-ambulance-care-covid/ and the work was shot across Oxfordshire in Summer 2020. It features a range of medical and other emergencies that SCAS responded to involving patients from the very young to the elderly. Emma, in her own time, joined colleagues on their operational ambulance shifts and all patients and staff seen in the gallery consented to be photographed.

Emma, who is based at the Trust's Adderbury Resource Centre in Oxfordshire, is hoping to undertake a similar project across the Trust's 999, NHS 111, patient transport and corporate services over the next few months.