Australian paramedics Masih Safi, 27, and Johann Cupidon, 32, have become stalwarts of the London Ambulance Service and appear on the BBC’s prime time program Ambulance, which follows paramedics during their day in the capital.The pair’s infectious impromptu rap session in one episode after a particularly tough call out made them social media sensations. “I told my family I would be here for two years, it’s been five,” Safi told News Corp Australia.
“I still get a buzz when I drive over London Bridge, I can’t believe I’m here.”Cupidon, who grew up in Melbourne’s Hampton Park said: “There were opportunities available in Melbourne but the variety here is 10 fold”.The pair, along with another 500 Australians, make up more than 20 per cent of the paramedics in the London Ambulance Service.The recruiting campaign has been successful in luring Australians over to the UK, with the opportunity to travel to continental Europe on days off an added bonus.However, like everywhere else in the world, that has been curbed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit Britain hard, with more than 2 million cases and at least 67,000 deaths.At the height of the first peak in March and April, the London Ambulance Service was receiving up to 11,000 calls a day.
And now a second wave, fuelled by a new mutation that developed in the UK that could transmit between people up to 70 per cent more easily, has cancelled Christmas and put extra strain on the ambulance service. Safi, who grew up in Knox, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, said he thought he caught the virus in February or March.His only symptom was a loss of smell and taste, which at the time was not recognised as linked to the coronavirus bug.Cupidon was not so lucky. “I was his maid for two weeks,” Safi said.The former Melbourne football club sports therapist was unable to leave his room, with his housemate, who had to self isolate, becoming his lifeline.“I got it bad, for two weeks I couldn’t get out of bed, I couldn’t leave my room,” Cupidon said.That was early in the pandemic, which has continued to stretch London’s paramedics and hospitals.
During the first peak, some patients who had called an ambulance were told to stay at home. In some cases, paramedics had to come back days later and take them to hospital.Safi said there was a clear protocol in place and that the ambulance service had managed to cope with the workload. Lessons have been learned before the second wave hit.“The level of precautions have been up, the PPE, there are strict rules in place,” Safi said. Both paramedics have been missing home, with flights for visits cancelled as Australians queue up for a precious place in hotel quarantine to move back home.Neither has immediate plans to return to Australia.The London Ambulance Service is still recruiting, inquiries to: [email protected]
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