Isle of Wight NHS chief praises emergency response to fatal bus crash major incident on Forest Road

Maggie Oldham, chief executive of the Isle of Wight NHS Trust said: "Isle of Wight NHS Trust responded to Sunday's tragic road incident by implementing its full major incident procedure.

"This resulted in additional staff from across the trust being made available to care for the significant number of patients arriving in a short space of time, alongside continuing to care for existing patients.

"Our ambulance staff responded quickly to the emergency both on site and in the control room.

"Eight ambulance service vehicles attended the incident alongside four air ambulances.

"Also on scene were other specialist trained clinicians from the trust, fire service and police.

"The ambulance service assessed all those involved in the incident and despite best efforts, one person was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

"A further 18 required triage, treatment and transport; two were transferred directly from scene via air ambulance to Southampton General Hospital and the remaining 16 were conveyed to St Mary’s emergency department.

"One patient was then transferred to Brighton Hospital, which was the next available major trauma centre.

"The remaining patients were treated at St Mary’s, with one requiring admission.

"Our thoughts go out to everyone involved in Sunday's tragedy, and particularly the family and friends of the person who sadly lost their life.

"We are extremely thankful and proud of all our staff for how they responded to the incident, of their superb professionalism and care, and how everyone rallied to help, whether or not they were on duty."