NHS 75: 33 years working for the Ambulance service in Hertfordshire
Mark Giddens started in the 999 control room at the age of 16
Mark Giddens has experienced several roles since joining the NHS over 33 years ago, working for their ambulance services.
At the age of 16, he started work taking non-urgent calls in the emergency operations centre (EOC) control room, before handling emergency calls, in what at the time was called the Hertfordshire Ambulance Service.
He told Greatest Hits Radio picking up an advert for the job was one of the best decisions he could have made.
"I saw an advert in the newspaper one day, applied for a part time job. I was offered full time and I've been in the NHS ever since"
"It's purely by accident, but it was such a good accident, if you like, that I fell into the ambulance service."
Since then, Mark has worked his way through many jobs, moving into a role within the patient transport service and then in 1996 joining frontline operations as an emergency medical technician.
Mark became a paramedic in 2000, progressing to an emergency care practitioner n 2006, and after completing his degree in 2008, he became an advanced paramedic in urgent care. He is now an advanced clinical practitioner, working out of Stevenage Ambulance Station for the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST).
He now he oversees the mentoring of EEAST's advanced and specialist paramedics.
"It is a massive family, the NHS is a massive family. I mean, it's changed so much since it's inception.
"For example, the ambulance service. So they were just basically stretcher bearers with bandages. Now we can provide advanced life support in the back of an ambulance on the street in a patient's house. So we've provided more and more care and the NHS developed as medicine has developed as well.
"The people make the NHS, the people are the beating heart of the NHS, if you like, it's the people that make it work."
Welcoming more than 50 babies to the world
Whilst many of us know paramedics and the ambulance service for helping us when we're out and about, then taking us to hospital, the life-changing treatment often happens outside hospital walls.
Mark told us one of his career highlights.
"I've lost count, but I've absolutely delivered over 50 babies in my time.
"Again, none of them named Mark, which is a bit unfortunate, but yeah, over 50 babies I've delivered in my time.
"So a 999 call has been made and I've turned up either in my car cause I work on a response car or in the ambulance and helped and mum give birth.
"I couldn't give you the exact amount, but also the memorable jobs are we go to people on the other side where the effectively they've they've clinically died and in cardiac arrest and where we've worked on the patient, we've brought them back and I've had quite a few patients that have been discharged alive from hospital."
The survival rate for those who have a cardiac arrest outside a hospital is very low, so for Mark and many others, being able to hear a patient has been discharged after suffering an out of hospital cardiac arrest is a highlight of the job.
Not going anywhere soon
For Mark, 33 years in the NHS just isn't enough. He has no plans to leave the career he loves for several years yet.
"Every every day's different, every job you go to is different. You don't know what you gonna go to day-to-day. So yeah, it's it's an amazing, exciting job.
"I'm not going anywhere yet, so yeah, I'm looking forward to what the future brings."