Senior Paramedic Team Leader Paul Smith has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for his services to the community in Merseyside in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours List.
Paul has been formally and nationally recognised as the first responder at last year’s devastating and tragic incident in Southport, showing extraordinary courage and professionalism.
Paul was the first emergency responder to arrive at Hart Street, where multiple children and adults had sustained life-threatening injuries.
Despite being informed that the violent attack was still ongoing, Paul prioritised the needs of the injured over his own safety. He wasted no time waiting for the area to be declared safe and immediately began assessing the situation and triaging patients.
In the early moments of a horrific mass casualty event, the first clinician on scene plays a pivotal role in shaping the response. Paul’s quick situational assessment and clinical leadership under extreme pressure helped coordinate the arrival and actions of subsequent emergency crews, ensuring that vital treatment began as quickly as possible.
For any paramedic, even though they may be used to dealing with injured patients, to see a patient and have to move away to triage the next patient is an incredibly difficult thing to do, especially if those patients are children. To do so, in accordance with protocol is risking a moral injury to that paramedic and can result in post-traumatic mental health symptoms or conditions.
Chief Executive Salman Desai praised Paul’s actions, stating:
“Until further ambulance resources arrived Paul was alone and witnessed very distressing injuries and images. All ambulance staff are trained to deal with a mass casualty situation. However, all staff fervently hope that they never have to attend one, and certainly not as the first on scene. Thankfully, incidents of this type are rare.
“Paul’s early arrival on scene, with the minimum of delay, likely had a major influence which should not be underestimated.
“In the face of what could have been a career-ending experience, Paul resumed his role as a Team Leader. Over the following hours, days, weeks and months, Paul has been a source of support for his team while they have accessed help to come to terms with what they saw that day.
“Paul is a credit to the ambulance service and worthy of this national recognition.
“Well done and thank you to Paul and all our staff, as well as our partner emergency service staff, who attended this incident. Our thoughts remain with the families of Bebe, Elsie and Alice.”
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