Sorry Cougar but it’s been really busy.

😆

Looking forward to this. Filmed, in part, at my place. Dodged the cameras (I’m not photogenic), but some good friends and colleagues feature. Should be excellent!

I see it’s NW this time so will be interesting to see how to compares to the last series.

WM, not NW 😉

Oops! I new what I meant.

Baseball bats over a parking space?

**** me.

poor sod 🙁

The one that had me in bits was the paramedic who had had 2 healthy kids & then 1 who due to a bad birth was brain damaged, yet she still does what is one of the most demanding jobs I can think of and then offers support to a woman in a difficult birth.

The closing line of “Its a privilege to do this & then you finish your shift put your kit in your locker and pick your daughter up from brownies”, just makes me so angry that these people are treated like account numbers by those in power.

I have a friend of many years standing who works for the WM trust. Staffing, target times and general conditions are very bad in the service. They were not brilliant to start with and have only got worse…

Given the hours worked, responsibility and situations they work in – it is a terrifically hard job. They do great work and just don’t get appreciated or treated as they should – by the service or some of the public…

Edit. Sorry, realised I just repeated myself from my post of 10 months again…

By the sounds it was very good again. I’ve not seen it I’ve been at work all week, going to watch it sometime but for personal reasons not just yet.

Cougar – Moderator
About time, I phoned ages ago.

I did have to phone for an ambulance for my stepdad a while back, at 6pm. After three calls it finally turned up at 2am.
They had had a busy night…

Drac, do you and your lot have any outlet for grieving/talking through experiences?

I ask, because two friends of mine are/were RCMP officers, and the horrific things they saw regularly, yet with no counselling/chaplaincy/talk sessions available, both suffered pretty serious PTSD that destroyed both their marriages.

Whatever the case, be well.

Drac, do you and your lot have any outlet for grieving/talking through experiences?

I can’t speak for other trusts but yes we do. My role is pretty much that these days, I’m now there for staff welfare amongst other things. I will be alerted of potential incidents that a crew has been sent to. I will arrange to me with them ASAP after always aiming for less than an hour or at least a phone call with a follow up after soon after if required. The incident is recorded being sent to their line and senior manager and Occ health if need be.

I have the authority to tale the crew offline for as long as I feel necessary, even send them home if it is required. We also have access to counselling services for staff if necessary.

Good to hear. I may pm you with a question if that’s okay.

I always think ambo staff, see stuff each day,that just one of those incidents may live with us for a lifetime, yet they do long shifts,are on call, have to react to life changing/life threatening situations, sometimes single handed,until back up arrives and for obvious reasons of patient confidentiality cant voice their feeling on bike forum.

Then theyre abused by drunks ad thugs, swore at, spat at and attacked, yet provide a free to use service to all.

what time and TV station is AMBULANCE on please

Of course.

what time and TV station is AMBULANCE on please

BBC 1 9pm in Thursday.

This week’s is on iplayer.

Brilliant, gritty, harrowing, uplifting TV.

Doffs cap to all of you. Hero’s in green.

Watched this am.

Excellent they make such a great job of catching the stories, the emioitons famalies go through and they also caught the emotions of the staff. That poor male dispatacher was heart broken and trying not show it, I do hope he got help.

Just watched it almost an hour of a 12 hour shift,huge respect to those in the control room and those out on the streets.

Hope whoever is the health secretary this week watches it, and doesnt try to privatise the ambulance service, it needs to be free to all.

Back on now.

Totally inappropriate, but if I ever fall down the stairs I want Maya to be first on scene.

Ultimate life-affirming public service programme.
The paramedic who cited her difficult childhood when she had to deal with chronic alcoholic who awoke memories was stunning.Reinforces that we are all human.
Drac tell your mates we thank them

She was lovely though but more importantly very professsional and compassionate.

I shall pass on your regards Jamie! 😆

Drac tell your mates we thank them

I will pass it on to my staff and others thanks.

The only thing keeping the NHS afloat are the amazing staff who live to help others. I’ve not watched much of this, but I don’t need to to know how amazing they all are.

I’ve had a few too many rides in the back of ambulances and a helicopter once; and every time the paramedics, nurses and doctors have been legendary.

puts it into perspective when we think we’ve had a busy shift or seen horrific things from time to time, you chaps are doing this constantly with little or no breaks.

hats off to you chaps drac, youre definitely the hardest working emergency service IMHO.

Hero’s.

Essential viewing.

Having lost my big brother to Alcohol, that was a tough watch.

All emergency services do their bit Sadex I know I take the piss out of the Fire Service but they provide an amazing service thankfully a one that they aren’t called on too often but that’s a blessing. Police do an amazing job too they are very protective of ambulance staff if we end up in a threatening situation the uphold the zero tolerance and will now allow any form abuse towards us.

Must have been extremely difficult for you to watch Lowey, it’s a horrible illness. I think they covered it well but sadly too many will just see him as a piss head with comprehension of the what he suffer or how he got there.

aye drac, tis true, police are also spot on, we have a good working relationship with all the services where we are, its really friendly. always pleased to see you boys on scene tho, especially at RTCs.

aye, agreed with alcoholism. back in the day id also have been one of the ones shouting out about being a waste of space, drain on the services etc, but doing this job has definitely made me think about the causes a lot more, its just so sad.
im seeing a lot on social media in the last couple of days bout the legal high addicts in our city, pics of kids sprawled out in the city centre. think there must have been a new article by the daily mail or something :-/
its sad to read the hateful comments. both my lads were in that state a few years back but luckily squared themselves up, i just feel so sorry for the families that are still going through it all right now.

That time again.

Awesome series. Just been watching it with Mrs Danny. Don’t know how you guys do it.

Mrs Danny is a nurse and even she said she couldn’t go full paramedic.

I have to say I am really enjoying this series, really well made and shows what great job they do. Hats off to all.

I have to admit that most weeks listening/watching certain calls it has brought a lump to my throat as it brings back some memories.

It’s a extremely rewarding job helping others in a dire need is something quite special. Sadly I struggle to do it at times, I’ve seen so many things that humans aren’t meant to see. It’s had an efffect on me and at times I’m not in a good place.

Wouldn’t have it any other way though when I can look back at those that I have helped. Had many a laugh with some great companionship over the years and still do, humour is great with colleagues some of it very dark.

Awwww! Lily.

Awesome series with some really great moments.

A bit difficult to watch for me now as I lost my dad (a week after) in an accident 11 months ago. All the emergency services were involved and every one of the people involved at the scene showed genuine interest and went out of their way to find out what the outcome was after the event.

As sad an outcome as it was, it was heartwarming to see the compassion.

Hospital ward staff however, did not fair well at all – but that’s another story.

Lol, just noticed a nice tweet from smudge (#ambulance) of this parish being displayed on the WMAS staff only intranet home page, as it’s been retweeted by official WMAS. Weird to see work and STW interaction; Normally separate spheres. Anyway, thanks for your appreciation smudge, but really, it’s just a job.

Edit; reread that; not ‘lolling’ at the tweet; it was evidently heartfelt; just at the weird doubletake I just did.

I have really enjoyed the series and it has been a real eye opener.

I think it was last nights episode where they sent 3 ambulances and a doctor car to a hoax call and that cost £1500. I know it was a serious case but there was only 1 person involved so I was questioning the need to send 3 ambulances. Surely 1 and the doctor car would have been sufficient?

It was also interesting to see that sometimes there just aren’t any ambulances to send. We always presume that if we ring 999 then somebody will be there in minutes.

Anyone watch last nights episode? Would be really interested in a layperson (or IT bods 😉 ) points of view re the frequent flyers, esp the male one. Tough jobs, for completely different reasons than possibly anticipated by the general public.

Yeah that was a very interesting episode to show the pressures of poor social care has on ambulance trusts.

Hooli,

For cardiac arrests it’s a 2 vehicle resposnse as it sounded a traumatic cardiac arrest they also sent a Dr as they have more skills. The Dr and the cardiac arrest Paramedic work as a team preparing equipment, using skills and drugs normal Paramedics cant’ so their time is spent doing that. The other crews concentrate on the advanced life support.