Medics keep the Eastern City safe over the festive period

To ensure that the public’s experience of the Eastern City over the festive period was a safe and positive one, for 11 nights in November and December we funded a team of cycle medics from St John Ambulance to patrol The City and assist the injured or vulnerable.
Working directly alongside cycle officers from the City of London Police the medics were deployed to over 40 incidents – ranging from mental health crises to road traffic collisions, intoxication and assaults – where they provided on-street treatment to 38 people. Their interventions avoided 28 ambulance call-outs, reducing the burden on the NHS at a busy time of year and sparing the patient both a potentially lengthy wait and a night in A&E. Their interventions also resulted in a significant saving of police time, freeing officers to instead focus on preventing and detecting crime in the City.
Now in to the new year, we are continuing the initiative with the cycle medics supporting the police’s monthly ‘Operation Reframe’ – a mass deployment of uniformed and plain-clothes officers in conjunction with partner agencies such as the Samaritans, Bridgewatch, NHS mental health, City of London Corporation, Safer Business Network, private security teams and the Eastern City BID Ambassadors to tackle crime in the night-time economy with a particular focus on preventing violence against women and girls. You can find out more about Operation Reframe via our short film here.