MALMESBURY paramedic Barrie Slade has taken a year off work to help build an ambulance service in North Africa.
Mr Slade has taken a sabbatical from the Great Western Ambulance Service to help develop an effective system in Libya.
The country traditionally offers little more than a driver only service, with no medic on board to provide vital life-saving treatment.
Hereford firm Emergency Response Services has recruited Mr Slade to help change that.
"In this country, we have the infrastructure in place, but they have nothing over there," said the former Army and RAF medic.
"The emergency number is 191 and it basically goes to an answer phone, and if they do pick the message up and send someone it is literally a van with a driver.
"The hospitals themselves are very westernised and they have fantastic equipment, but the missing link is pre-hospital care, which is what this company is developing."
Mr Slade has been working there since June and has already appeared on Libyan television twice. He said he was making inroads in the country, which has one of the highest road accident death rates in the world.
"I have spent the last month teaching 140 doctors pre-hospital medical care," he said. "They will now travel with the ambulance to ensure patients receive vital medical treatment before they reach hospital.
"This is going to make a significant contribution to saving lives and enhancing the patient's recovery, particularly the many victims of road collisions, who often died at the side of the road."
On Sunday, Mr Slade is flying to Washington DC to learn new skills to pass on to his students.
"Libya has a problem with anti-personnel mines injuring people, not just in the built up areas, but in remote areas of the desert," he said.
"I will be joining medics from the American special forces to learn enhanced battlefield skills, including surgical interventions and other techniques designed to deal with major trauma and severe burns."
Mr Slade and his team also train doctors to treat patients in response helicopters and when in remote areas for long periods of time.
He spends up to a month in Libya at a time, before returning home, to Bonners Close, to see his wife and four-year-old daughter, for about a week.
"I am missing my colleagues and family back home, but am really enjoying what I am doing at the moment and feel privileged to have the opportunity to pass on my paramedic skills to colleagues in the Middle East," he said.
