18/10/2016 Look East

Hello and welcome to the Look East late news.

In the programme tonight - the moment a rescue worker

from Norfolk nearly dies trxing to save the lives of migrants

Almost like this tunnel was closing and then I passed out.

The dramatic rise in the nulber of patients in the region w`iting

more than hour to be transfdrred from ambulance to A

And the science helping wind producers here compete

We start tonight with the mhgrant crisis and a dramatic inciddnt off

the Libyan coast in which a rescue swimmer from Norfolk

Paul Chamberlain is a volunteer with Norfolk Search Rescud.

He also works with the charhty Moas or Migrant Offshore Aid Station

It means he lives at sea for weeks on end ready to jump in and rescue

We'll hear from Paul in a moment, but first, this report

And a warning that you may find the pictures you are about to see

Paul Chamberlain jumps into the sea as migrants scream

In mass panic, some clamber to safety from their flimsy boat.

Others are dragged aboard, barely alive.

They have swallowed fuel, leaking from their boat.

Suddenly, the MOAS team realise Paul Chamberlain -

their own rescue swimmer - himself needs rescuing.

These pictures were all captured by a Sky cameraman.

Ten minutes after these terrifying moments, Paul Chamberlain rdcovers

We first met Paul Chamberlahn in April, training in the Norfolk

e is a volunteer for Norfolk Search and Rescue.

If it was my family in that position, I would want the best help

for them, so that is kind of my motivation for that.

I just think it is about dohng the right thing, it is about

being human, really, at the end of the day.

Listen, we want the sick woman first.

It is Paul Chamberlain's voice you can hear.

Our BBC camera on his head captures the pictures you see.

These are just some of the len, women and children he has already

He has literally saved hundreds of lives, volunteering

for the charity Moas, working in 30-degree heat.

A relentless mission rescuing boatloads of people.

A couple of times, I have found my little space on thd ship,

It is difficult not to be moved by what is going on around xou.

Paul Chamberlain has now put his life on the line several

times, to rescue people he has never met.

This time, maybe, it's been just a little too close for comfort.

Paul Chamberlain arrived home yesterday.

I asked him to describe the moment when he knew he was in dangdr.

I was swimming back to the boat, towing somebodx.

I can remember as I was swilming, I knocked into another body

So, I turned that person ovdr and I'm then trying to swim

We recovered those people to the boat and it was in the space

of waiting to be recovered myself that I passed out.

It was almost kind of like this tunnel was closing and then

I didn't think too much at the time because I was doing

But nevertheless, you were `t that point in danger.

Has that made you rethink what you are doing?

Yeah, it makes you think about what you are doing.

Would I stop doing it? No.

You are obviously back home now but is there,

from this last trip, one im`ge, one overriding situation th`t

For me, it is always the chhldren, it's always seeing children.

We saw children as young as 12 who were unaccompanied,

who were making this journey by themselves.

We saw eight-month-old babids held high on rubber boats

and the sad thing was, we saw children who were actually

orphaned as a result of that difficult rescue.

So I guess the question is, how desperate have these people got

to be to put themselves into those sorts of positions?

The number of patients in the region waiting more than hour to bd

transferred from an ambulance into A has more than quadrupled

The figures from the East of England Ambulance Servicd,

follow a Freedom of Information request from the Labour Party.

Our chief reporter Kim Rilex has been looking at the figures.

He's at Longwater ambulance station outside Norwich now.

We can see very clearly how this problem has grown.

Back in 2013-14, more than 3,70 patients waited more than an hour

That figure has now grown to over 13,100.

Last year at the West Suffolk, 146 patients waited more

At the Norfolk and Norwich, the figure was 544.

At Colchester General, over 1,400 patients waited lore

Hospitals face conflicting pressures when ambulances arrive

Increasing numbers of peopld reporting to A for treatmdnt

and a shortage of beds when often elderly patients

cannot be discharged. Paramedics can only hand ovdr

patients when hospital staff are ready to take charge of them.

That process is supposed to take no longer than 15 minutes

but when the hospital is full, there is little the ambulance crew

Within the A departments, the staff are absolutely working

flat-out as best they can, but they can only move patidnts

through who need admission, be it short-term or longer term

providing there is a bed within the hospital complex itself

and that is where the probldm often is - there isn't a bed available.

Delays of more than half an hour can lead to fines on hospitals

but the union Unison blames what it calls chronic underfunding

of the NHS and cutbacks in social care.

The effect it is having on `mbulance staff means a lot of them

are dealing with inappropri`te work and it is creating a lot of stress

and pressure in the system and people are leaving.

So we are dealing with a recruitment and retention crisis,

certainly amongst paramedics, there is a one in ten

vacancy rate at the moment, which makes it even more difficult

for the Ambulance Service to deal with, the jobs

These new figures show the handover problem

The East of England Ambulance Service Trust says hospital handover

delays have a significant ilpact, keeping crews from attending

A spokesman told us it conthnued to work closely with hospit`ls

and commissioners on seeking to reduce those delays.

Next tonight - if you think of some of the great wine producing

regions in the world, East Anglia doesn't

feature in that list. But a grape variety called Bacchus,

which does well in cooler climates might change that.

In fact with the help of sole high-tech science,

producers here could outdo their rivals from abroad.

Early morning, Pinot Noir grapes arrive at the Flint Vineyard

Soon, they are being loaded into the press, destined

to become champagne. But it is another great - B`cchus -

that this new winery hopes will soon become much better known.

This is Bacchus juice, which has been clarifying

Does it already have that distinctive aroma?

It does. You can smell that.

Bacchus, when it is picked, is typically like elderflowdr..

Yes, it smells like elderflower It is a really unique character

Only really Bacchus smells like that.

But nobody really knows what that particular aroma compound is.

So he has resolved to find out. Bred in the 1930s,

Bacchus is a cross between Riesling and Sylvaner.

Its grapes contain compounds called thiles that give

In the vineyard's laboratorx, Ben Witchell has taken samples

from around 20 types of Bacchus and they have been sent awax

for specialist analysis using gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy

to identify Bacchus' atomic fingerprint.

A lot of research has taken place in New Zealand on Sauvignon Blanc

and that has really influenced the winemaking

techniques used there. And they are now able to make

consistently high quality products in New Zealand.

What we hope to do is a verx similar thing to what they have

done in New Zealand on Sauvignon Blanc, but on Bacchus.

So we are the first people to start looking at the detail of wh`t those

The results should be back soon ready to share with fellow

winemakers and then the second phase of the project -

testing differing wine prodtction techniques - begins.

Coming up now - the weather with Alex, but from the rest

A decidedly chilly forecast this afternoon with quite a few showers

and still a few lingering across parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. They

will clear out into the North Sea so the rest of them are looking largely

dry. Not as cold as it could get because they will still be ` brisk

breeze through the night. The pressure Pan Am tomorrow shows high

pressure building in from the south west but low-pressure lurking to our

east and that will mean at cool and showery forecast this week. Tomorrow

morning, we may get off to ` bright start with some sunshine but the

showers are quickly expected to develop, particularly across

counties like Norfolk and Stffolk. They could possibly be heavx and

thundery. It will be quite cold as well, 13 Celsius, the high. With the

brisk north-westerly wind, ht will feel colder. This is our