Did anyone else watch this last night?

I’ve just caught it in iPlayer this am as I was at work last night.

It’s BBC at its best again showing a true reflection of what Ambulance services face.

Yip
Some eejit phoned because her false nail had fell off!

Yes. Tough gig.

I know Russ how thoughtless especially as someone had a dead cat in the garden.

Was that not the Queen?

Only realised it was on halfway through. Might watch it on iplayer…

Not sure it might have been the guy who was going to get god to punch the call handler in the face.

London seems a bit of a different place to be a paramedic than sunny Cumbria!

Someone stopping an ambulance to ask what was happening – yeah no worries Love (they call lots of people ‘Love’ it seems) I’ve screamed across London through red lights and between buses, but I’ll stop here to give you the gossip.

London seems a bit of a different place to be a paramedic than sunny Cumbria!

Last night’s programme wasn’t a true representation of a normal day in London.
The Advanced Paramedics do go to a reasonable amount of arrests/stabbings/trauma etc but that’s only about a dozen or so people across London. The regular day to day stuff isn’t exciting enough for the TV though so as ever they skipped over most of it.
Despite that I still thought it was one of the best TV programmes I’ve seen about the Ambulance Service, I might be slightly biased though as a few mates of mine are in the programme!

We watched and it’s clear that all the crews were caring, dilligent and patient with the patients.

One Q: which I’m sure can be answered by someone on here: Why so many incidents required multiple units? Given the clear shortage of trained crews there seemed to be a number of patients shown where a crew of two would be sufficient to manage treatment and get them to hospital but multiple ambulances were there and seemed to stay even when the situation had been assessed.

Another Q: Why not have trained lifting teams rather than tie up multiple paramedics moving a patient that’s been stabilised.

[neither is a criticism, I’m just curious]

yep, watched it too, thought it was very good. hats off to the paramedics.

Some of the calls were amazingly idiotic.

One thing, did I miss hear that London is covered by only 15 Ambulances?

mcobie – Member

Some of the calls were amazingly idiotic.

One thing, did I miss hear that London is covered by only 15 Ambulances?

Nah, I think at one point someone said there were only 12 (or possibly 15) Ambos left free for a city of x million – all the others were busy.

They’ve got around 900 Ambulances in total, plus another 100 cars / bikes etc. I guess not all of them will be in service all the time, but it’s still a lot.

Have a couple of close friends in the ambulance service. It’s a job that’s gettting tougher! Reduced number of stations, worse attitude from some members of the public, more idiotic call outs and reduced staffing. The pressure they are under is ridiculous.

P-Jay – Member 

mcobie – Member

Some of the calls were amazingly idiotic.
One thing, did I miss hear that London is covered by only 15 Ambulances?

Nah, I think at one point someone said there were only 12 (or possibly 15) Ambos left free for a city of x million – all the others were busy.
They’ve got around 900 Ambulances in total, plus another 100 cars / bikes etc. I guess not all of them will be in service all the time, but it’s still a lot.

Ah, ok…that makes a lot more sense!

The thing that really came across was how tough their job is becoming. Although not covered, paramedics are woefully paid for what they do (as are all emergency services IMO).

Last night’s programme wasn’t a true representation of a normal day in London.
The Advanced Paramedics do go to a reasonable amount of arrests/stabbings/trauma etc but that’s only about a dozen or so people across London. The regular day to day stuff isn’t exciting enough for the TV though so as ever they skipped over most of it.
Despite that I still thought it was one of the best TV programmes I’ve seen about the Ambulance Service, I might be slightly biased though as a few mates of mine are in the programme!

A very valid point but there were a high amount regardless of certainly more than I’m use to. I thought it was a great model to use though sending APs to traauma, arrests and potential arrests.

One Q: which I’m sure can be answered by someone on here: Why so many incidents required multiple units? Given the clear shortage of trained crews there seemed to be a number of patients shown where a crew of two would be sufficient to manage treatment and get them to hospital but multiple ambulances were there and seemed to stay even when the situation had been assessed.

All cardiac arrests or potential require a 2 vehicle response in order to do effective CPR as the longer an individual does it the less efficient it becomes. Some jobs are identified wrongly or rightly depending on the info they receive.

They also seem to have AP dedicated desk in their control who monitor cases to send APs. It’s also possible they mobilised to more when they were filming to provide footage but of course that I may be wrong about.

Another Q: Why not have trained lifting teams rather than tie up multiple paramedics moving a patient that’s been stabilised.

Not sure if London does and they were tied up already but its a model tried elsewhere and what you end up is a resource that does relatively less work than it could if it was a normal vehicle. The decision is with the crew how they handle a patient but there are guidelines with weight limits. The Fire Service in some areas will assist with a lift but as this usually does not generate an income or they may be taken away from other work then they can’t always respond.

A well shot and edited programe, showed some of the realities some of us may face just once in a lifetime, yet those paramedics and control staff where doing it every day , over long hours, and thanks to them .

Back on tonight.

Emotional already.

Peggy is going to die, I hope I’m wrong

Least she had an orgasim.

I’m not mentally robust enough to watch this kind of show.

It’s very well done showing the pressure the services suffer and the emotions staff go through.

This is heartbreaking….. the patience is amazing, but it’s such a waste of their time.

Yep it’s absolutely spot on, well filmed/produced.

Kathleen’s are unfortunately an all too common occurrence

😥

Awwww!

Oh Peggy 🙁

Tv at its best . What was the music at the end. Scotish guy i think singing hold back the night .

Coles Corner Richard Hawley. Just shazamed it

They all do an incredible job in difficult situations and environments.
I do think some people must be really stupid to call. But at least they as experts can make the right decisions.
Very powerful.

Richard Hawley is the artist.

It’s phenomenal what people ring for.

That the one thanks.

One of the calls I remember taking was a lady who had taken laxatives and they had made her stools soft.

Actually had a lot of elderly women call about their bums/poo

But also on the flip side to these calls you get callers where they really don’t want to be calling 999 or want an ambulance as they don’t want to be a nuisance…. but they need one. For example I had a farmers wife call to request an out of hours Dr to call around at some point over the weekend. Her husband had got crushed by some farm machinery, managed to free himself and stagger in to the kitchen where he was currently lay unconscious on the floor!

I guess you have to laugh at the ones that call because a baby swan’s been run over and the RSPCA aren’t awake yet, at least you can get rid of that in 30 seconds, and hopefully you don’t get too many 30s losses to add up.

It’s the ones that clearly need help of some sort, but a paramedic isn’t that help. But i don’t know what is….

Sad for Peggy of course, but I can’t help feeling that life had been lived and wrung dry some time before it actually ended, and I hope that things change before I reach that age.

Just in case you guys were wondering.

Watched this last night with my other half (paramedic in west london) and i think its the first time she has sat through any kind of ambulance related show without getting angry at it or having to turn it off. totally accurate reflection of the unfortunate time wasting that occurs (she recognised the “miscarriage” lady as an entinox junkie) but also the truly heartbreaking jobs they do go to. what a legend Peggy was!

Peggy was brilliant the characters like that cheer your day up.

Thats what she said, when the paramedic (at the end) said ” i really love this job, i used to hate it” he must have just done a good job rather than go to someone with a cold/headache/4day old stomach ache

The BBC really do excel at this type of program. An Hour To Save a Life was also excellent.

Jesus, I’ve just started to watch this and bloody hell. Anyone that moans about the NHS can bugger off.
Really well filmed, fascinating.