About Us

His most recent role was as a paramedic for the Scottish Ambulance Service Special Operations Response Team, caring for patients in specialist and high risk environments.

“This involved working closely with partner agencies, protecting patients, the public and staff at incidents and improving health outcomes at hazardous incidents,” says Stu.

“We were responsible for incidents involving mass casualties, confined spaces, hazardous materials, police firearms, infectious disease, flooding response, rescue and marauding terrorism.”

The emergency planning role offered the perfect opportunity to further develop his passion and experience for all things related to major incidents.

Stu says emergency management requires a number of elements to function well and his background is definitely more from a technical operational perspective.

“Managing major or significant incidents has a number of “building blocks” that are no more or less important than each other; communication, co-ordination and a joint understanding of risk and a shared situational awareness.”

There needs to be cohesion in any response, not just at the scene but all the way back through the organisation.

“Having been tasked to focus on Wellington Free’s specialist capabilities, I hope to solidify this cohesion and strengthen our major or hazardous incident response.”

Stu says his early career as a soldier with the British Army, was fantastic and second to none.

“I was deployed four times to the Middle East on combat operations and on each deployment I was the team medic, it was then I first began to take an interest in medicine.”

“On what was to be my final deployment as a soldier, in Afghanistan, I was wounded by an improvised explosive device. I spent two years between hospitals and the defence rehabilitation centre getting treatment.

“It was during this time, my interest in medicine really developed; I ultimately chose Paramedicine.”

He recently spent a year and a half teaching the Paramedicine degree at Whitireia Polytech.

“It was a great honour to teach, I particularly enjoyed the first year where I found students to be just so excited for the future. Seeing students develop, not just around Paramedicine, but also in self-confidence, was great.”

“Through Whitireia, I gained the perspective that Wellington Free was a small but solid service with a positive approach to patient care and strong clinical focus.”

Having recently left Scotland, Stu says life in New Zealand is quite different. “The Scottish Highlands are stunning much like New Zealand, but the culture is definitely different.”

“There are some real confronting issues with knife crime, drugs, alcohol, mental health and religious tension. From a working perspective this kept me busy, but as a family we decided New Zealand was where we wanted to raise our daughter.”

Stu says he misses his family and a winter Christmas but prefers the lifestyle New Zealand offers.  With a Kiwi wife, young daughter and new role, New Zealand is now a home away from home.