King’s Ambulance Service Medal awarded to Inverness man
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An Inverness man who has been awarded the King’s Ambulance Service Medal initially thought it was a wind-up.
Alistair Macdonald (67) has been awarded the prestigious honour, which acknowledges ambulance personnel who have shown exceptional devotion to duty, merit and conduct.
Mr Macdonald is a Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) project leader who has been instrumental in developing several key initiatives for the service including improving health in the community and best practice training of ambulance service staff.
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The dad-of-two, and granddad of four, joined the service 13 years ago, previously working as a police inspector in Glasgow, where he was born, before relocating to the north.
Initially he joined SAS’s Patient Transport Service where he worked on the road, carrying out routine patient transfers for 10 years during which he became the bariatric instructor for the Highlands and Western Isles.
He then transferred to his new role as the north lead for the service’s face fitting, defibrillator, logistics and controlled drugs administration projects, working on service projects aimed at improving health in the community, along with ensuring the safety and best practice training of ambulance service staff.
Initially, he was disbelieving of the award.
"I was at work when I received the notification – I thought someone was winding me up, it was a complete surprise," he said.
"But once I saw it was real, I was very proud and thoroughly delighted. It came out of the blue and it’s very nice to be recognised."
The first person he told was his wife, Sally, who said it was "thoroughly deserved" and is proud and delighted for him.
After retiring from the police force, Alistair wanted to continue to help out people in the community.
Soon after taking on his new role three years ago, during the pandemic, he led regionally rolling out face-fitting, before subsequently the fitting of the power hoods whilst driving forward the establishment of the north logistics hub.
Recently, he has led on the north region’s monitoring and evaluation of ongoing defibrillator repairs and servicing and has recently been involved with controlled drugs administration in the north region.
"I have enjoyed working on all these projects, as I enjoy a challenge, and i enjoy working with people and working with the community," he said.
Michael Dickson, chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Alistair has continually demonstrated an exceptional level of commitment and professionalism in the numerous additional work streams he has undertaken. "He is also highly respected by our partner agency colleagues, with whom he works with very closely.
"Alistair is a caring, compassionate and motivated member of staff who strives to always do what’s best for the patient.
"He regularly goes the extra mile and is an absolute asset to the Scottish Ambulance Service who is truly deserving of this award."
