Looking at the demands placed on the ambulance service, where some treat it as a taxi to the nearest hospital
http://theparamedicsdiary.blogspot.co.uk
An interesting read, if you read from the start towards the most recent posts, well, you can sense and understand the frustration
Ta for reminder I'll set the Sky+ away
I'll be interested in this as i've only recently learnt the demands they are put under from first hand experience. It is absolutely crazy and not quite believable at first. Sky + is set
Programme bears out my experience when we waited over 40 mins for an ambo after guy had bad bike crash and amongst other issues his sunglasses shattered and went in his eye, we thought he'd lost it....my advice to anyone round here is go and get your car and drive them to hospital it will be quicker....
my advice to anyone round here is go and get your car and drive them to hospital it will be quicker
Possibly if the victim is mobile but not a good idea if any back/neck pain present. You might get a fire-brigade convertible in the hospital car-park and need to sue your mate for recompense.
We could do with an alcohol recovery service as education doesn't seem to be working. I tried to move a paralytic drunk in my car recently but the ambulance guys were really not for it.
They are right though, there are a load of safety issues in doing this unless it is one of your party. Drunks in this state are complex cases, usually with a health history so ambulance is still better.
Response time was 20 minutes.
Council/private ambulances in the style of public safety officers?
As some of you may know, I work in a prison (North Yorkshire) At our establishment we have had 4 ambulances/paramedics A DAY, attending prisoners who've 'gone under' using New Psychoactive Substances (Spice/legal highs).
Even when one dies it won't make a difference, we'll still be calling for an ambulance/paramedic when some fruitcake fancies a headchange.
In the meantime of course, while our ambulance person/paramedic is dealing with some selfish prisoner, your granny has fallen & broken a hip but the limited ambulance crew are busy. 🙄
Edit. Sorry it's yet another story you probably won't be interested in.
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These have contributed massively to an increase in calls to 999.
I noticed it when doing mountain rescue and I know it's the same now I'm a paramedic.
There were fewer calls when people didn't have mobiles and had to run to a phone box, because they actually used common sense to deal with the majority of accidents, whereas now it's easier to just pick up your mobile.
If I get a few minutes rest I'll post something. Must go got another call.
Nonlocal - of course for balance, it is worth noting that mobiles have, without doubt, saved lives too both on the hill and off.
Yay! Sandwich time.
Ok.
The workload has increased phenomenally in recent years, mobile phones have been around way longer than that so they really aren't much a contributing factor. There's no GP out of hours service as good as it once was, people seem to be willing to ring 999 for anything such as someone with glass in their eye. Does that really warrant an ambulance travelling at speed to get to the patient to then transport to hospital. Is it so life and death that it needs to take up a highly trained skill set or could someone pop them in a car and take them to hospital?
People are living longer but with often long term health problems that flare up causing them to be quite unwell. Hospitals are bed blocked as they can't discharge people to social care as easy this delays ambulances who can't leave a hospital until a room is free. There's loads of factors that contribute to it, funding massively reduced but stricter targets many that are silly need to be hit but no cash is there to do this with.
You might get a fire-brigade convertible in the hospital car-park and need to sue your mate for recompense.
I bet you don't.
It happens...
Done it once, at scene helpful couple put chap into their car, paramedics said they wanted person taken out in a ked and on back board.
At scene is different to someone being walked to a car then driven to a hospital. Even at scene a bit common sense, history taking and examinations can make it so it's not really necessary.
The thing is most people now think of an ambulance as a hospital taxi, and by arriving in an ambulance they can somehow jump the queue.
So youre drunk and ring an ambo, get to hospital, DR says youre drunk after doing various tests, breathalyser etc, patient discharge to shed outside, and then sent a bill for 100 QUIDS.
So easy, soon stop drunks blocking beds and ambulances, and strange how drunks can fund a taxi and takeaway home yet cant book the same taxi to hospital.
Watching it now. Errmm! They're got some bits right but being very clever with some other bits of reporting.
I must admit I was pleased when they turn up recently.
Next door neighbor daughter screaming and hysterical, I run round find mother with head/neck (not really sure)wound, unconscious and a big pool of claret.
Now I've forgot most of my first aide but remembered head/neck (could not see with the red stuff what was what) best not move her.
All ended well eventually but glad they turn up as quick at they did. I ended up on mop up duties once the professionals arrived 🙂
Programme bears out my experience when we waited over 40 mins for an ambo after guy had bad bike crash and amongst other issues his sunglasses shattered and went in his eye, we thought he'd lost it....my advice to anyone round here is go and get your car and drive them to hospital it will be quicker....
We/they were probably dealing with a mobile adult with knee pain that was three weeks old...but obviously warranted a 999 call right then....or maybe one of the numerous calls I've done this winter whereby the patient has no intention of going to A&E, they just want our advice on the cold/bug they've had all week....or maybe the most minor of shunt RTCs where the parasite inside decides it's compensation time and fakes neck pain in order to get immobilized and carted off to hospital....of the growing pathetic number of pseudo fitters who drop and thrash around at work in order to get the day off....or they do it after an argument with their partner to make them feel bad....all comes our way, all takes time to sort out and it all means ambulances aren't readily available for the calls they were intended to deal with like: strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrests, diabetic emergencies, emergency labour, limb threatening injuries etc.....
If we stopped dispatching ambulances to nonsense we'd have a world class 999 medical services in this country.
So well said deviant, why cant we charge time wasting callers. A large bill enforceable by bailiffs like parking charges would stop the abuse.
Just to add, it's free and people abuse free stuff.
...although I'm staunchly pro a free NHS I'd happily see people pay for ambulances when there is a consensus from the ambulance crew, the nurse in charge of A&E and the treating Dr that ambulance transport to hospital wasn't necessary.
If only one of those three disagrees then the patient is unaffected but if all three agree it was an abuse of the 999 system then a nominal fine of £50 would (i hope) start to put people off calling for frivolous reasons.
So what's the verdict Drac, is it worth watching, or just sensationalised twaddle to feed the masses?
The latter.
Last time I had cause to call an ambulance was for my dad. My parents live 40 yards away and they beat me to the front door. Incredible service.
The latter.
Ta!
I won't waste an hour on 4oD then....
Deviant, the problem with charging for time wasters is it gives Mrs Smith another reason not to call 999 about her chest pain; or the scared broke teenager not to call 999 after a bike crash and perhaps risk life changing results; or the anxious new parents delaying the suspected meningitis call; or even my mother deciding that she can deal with my dads hypo herself (as she does 99.9% of the time)... In all those cases the ambulance crew, nurse and Dr would all probably agree it WAS a legitimate call, even if Mrs Smith just had heartburn, the teenager had minor concussion, the baby just had nasty virus and my dad was sitting up by the time the boys in green arrived. BUT the caller doesn't know that when they make the decision to dial - a charge will delay some genuine callers taking a critical step.
On the other hand, the drunk mate may see 50 quid as a trivial cost; the regular time waster will realise there is nothing left for the bailiffs to take and the guy with a twisted ankle after a week will expect even better service because, "I'm paying for this".
And often the person receiving treatment wasn't the one who made the call and may not go with them to the hospital, so it becomes even harder to pinpoint who should be fined.
So be careful what you wish for...
I know, I felt like I had won the lottery.
I didn't really feel like eating anymore by the time we had our break at 0230 at a foreign ambulance station
It keeps chopping off the second half of my posts?
Damn foreigners stealing your meal breaks.
Nothing quite beats getting an enforced meal break at an ambulance station 75 miles from yours at 0230 when you have no food. Oh, and getting sent to jobs that have already been waiting 30 minutes, that are nearly an hour away...
Seriously though, it's not all bad, but we are struggling at times, a lot of times, most of the time...
Yup it's not good for staff. I'm fortunate in I'm not operational all the time now, I can still go far too long without a break but it's through my own doing rather than forced.
I do have to say, that I love my job, but. Feel that we are unable to function effectively due to increased NHS111 referrals, inappropriate calls, abuse of the system, and a too risk adverse 999 call triage system. We can't keep going like this for much longer, staff are burning out
What the people watching this show might not realise is that meeting targets means more funding, failing targets means less funding. It's like a reward for doing well, which is why they are forced to 'massage' the best they can out of the performance. But as most people would understand, surely it's the failing Trusts that need the funding?
Dodgy reporting though going off speculation rather than facts.
Yup it's a fantastic job but staff are finding it tough to keep going.