A LIFEBOAT crew teamed up with paramedics for a rescue mission after an ambulance was unable to access an island because of exceptionally high tides.

The emergency services had to launch a medical evacuation as a patient fell ill on Mersea Island.

The Causeway, which links the island to Colchester, was flooded because of an unusually high Spring tide and emergency medics were unable to cross the flooded Strood.

But working with West Mersea RNLI and the West Mersea Coastguard Rescue Team, paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust were able to get onto the island, and help the patient to Colchester General Hospital.

A spokesman for West Mersea RNLI said: “With Mersea Island cut off by a very high spring tide, all vehicles, including an ambulance, were unable to cross the Strood.

“We hurried to the top of Peldon Creek where we met paramedics and an ambulance.

“We then brought one paramedic by lifeboat onto the island where she was met by the West Mersea Coastguard Rescue Team who were waiting with a vehicle ready to rush her to the casualty.”

The crews shored up at the car park of the Coast Inn on Coast Road and then faced an anxious wait as the paramedic and coastguard team rushed to the patient who had been given initial help by a community first responder.

But shortly afterwards, the paramedic and the patient were now back at the meeting point and the lifeboat crew launched again for the return journey.

They were then able to get back to the mainland and straight onto the waiting ambulance which was able to take the group back to Colchester General Hospital.

After receiving the call just after 12.30pm on Thursday, the crew were back at the station by 2pm as the tide was beginning to subside.

The tide was abnormally high due to a combination of high winds and the gravitational pull of the super blue blood moon which illuminated skies across the country last week.

It is believed the patient, a man who had been suffering chest pains, is now recovering at home.