WEST Midlands Ambulance Service has been honoured with a prestigious TV award at this year's BAFTAs.

The documentary series, following the service which serves Worcestershire, won best factual series during last night's BAFTAs ceremony.

The programme, made by Dragonfly TV, is currently in its third series and follows crews across the Worcestershire area as well as Shropshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Coventry, Birmingham and the Black Country. 

Airing on Thursdays on BBC1 at 9pm, the show goes behind the scenes of second-largest ambulance service in the UK.

The documentary showed the shocking moment paramedics treated a man who was suffering from a heroin overdose outside the Cancer Research shop, in The Cross, Worcester. 

Paramedic Katie Cartwright, who featured in the very first story of the first episode when she helped to save the life of a cardiac arrest patient, was at the event, along with Rich Phillips – a controller in the Emergency Operations Centre at Brierley Hill – and Claire Brown from the trust’s press office, which co-ordinates the filming from a trust perspective.

Staff said they were surprised but delighted to claim the award ahead of the other nominees – Catching a Killer, Drugsland and Hospital.

Kirsty Cunningham, executive producer at Dragonfly Television, which makes the series, said: "We couldn’t have made it without patients and their families, who we satellited into their lives at unknown times, allowing us to tell their stories.

"But really, this series goes to the heroes in green. It was our privilege to be able to capture the way they work with such compassion and care. It’s our love song to the NHS this series."

Rich added: "I’d like to say a very big thank you to the whole service and Dragonfly. It’s fantastic getting a BAFTA. Wow, we just work in a control room and on ambulances, so thanks very much."

While Katie said: "On behalf of West Midlands Ambulance Service, we’d like to thank Dragonfly for portraying the ambulance service for what it really is.

"We’ve had an amazing time and can’t believe that we’ve won; we’re so excited."

The trust’s chief executive, Anthony Marsh, said the award is a "fantastic achievement", not just for those who featured in the programmes but "for all of our staff".

He added: "What this programme shows is just how much effort our staff put into the job, wherever they work in the organisation."

Claire said: "The programmes show just how amazing our staff are. Although the programmes can’t show everyone that works for us, whether on an ambulance, in a control room or in the many roles behind the scenes, it has given the public a real insight into what the ambulance service is really like.

"Thank you also to the hundreds of staff who have helped make the programmes possible."