"The icy conditions have also meant the Scottish Ambulance Service has been struggling to answer emergency calls within its own target times.
Paramedics aim to respond to the most serious emergencies within eight minutes in 75% of cases.
But ambulances only turned up on time in 65% of cases on Wednesday due to the snow and ice and the performance figure was as low as 53% seven days ago." BBC.

To turn up to 65% of these more serious cases within the target time is a fantastic result considering the weather well done to those that are busting their arse to help others.

Now why couldn't the BBC have put a positive slant on it?

Hmm – I just want to know why these paramedics aren't staying at home on account of the bad weather. What happens if one of them is a single parent and their child is sent home by the school coz some teacher didn't want to make the effort to get to work?

Aye – that too.

Thanks Goan.

Response time for life threatening cases is a staggering 8 minutes and that's from when the call handler says "Hell Ambulance Service" so they have take the call, find and activate a vehicle and the crew get there within 8 minutes. Of course there's all sorts of computer systems that help that but still one hell of a target.

Hmm – I just want to know why these paramedics aren't staying at home on account of the bad weather.

Most of use are making it, some aren't and I'm even going to start with that. It's been easy for me I can walk to work but the school closure meant my wife looked after the kids the day I was planning to drop them off and pick them up. I went in to work just in case and turns out I was needed. My colleague has made her to work on 20 miles of untreated roads, at 6am there's not many cars and no gritting going on, others have failed a few miles.

It now turns out my wife has to pay the day back or unpaid levae, me I could have claimed carers leave but I'd rather keep the service running here. I'm local, my wife's born and bred here it's cheesy but I see it as a duty of care to provide a service for the job I have.

Hmm – I just want to know why these paramedics aren't staying at home on account of the bad weather. What happens if one of them is a single parent and their child is sent home by the school coz some teacher didn't want to make the effort to get to work?

Cock.

I'm local, my wife's born and bred here it's cheesy but I see it as a duty of care to provide a service for the job I have.

Not cheesy in the slightest. If I was wearing a hat, I'd take it off to you right now. Respect.

when the call handler says "Hell Ambulance Service"

… do they then say "Mwhahahahaha! No one can help you down HERE!"…?

Coyote – Member
> Hmm – I just want to know why these paramedics aren't staying at home on
> account of the bad weather. What happens if one of them is a single parent
> and their child is sent home by the school coz some teacher didn't want to
> make the effort to get to work?
Cock.

Do you have a problem, spunkbreath?

Cock

spunkbreath

Excellent. [pulls up a chair]

Puts the kettle on,

at least the teachers have the weekend to find another reason not to work on Monday.

Hey guitarman, you got any vegan biscuits to dunk for a starvin' bruvva?

Puts the kettle on,

at least the teachers have the weekend to find another reason not to work on Monday.

… do they then say "Mwhahahahaha! No one can help you down HERE!"…?

Doh! I must clean the crumbs from my keyboard.

Agree well done the emergency services. Gave the MacDonald Rd Fire boys loads of space and a tip of the hat as they went out on blue lights yesterday

some teacher didn't want to make the effort to get to work?

Aye because they all get together and vote on not going in. Do you actually think it is the teacher that decides. We're open i go in and if we weren't i'd head to the nearest school even though i work in the independent sector. Just as well i'm a workshy lazt fecker isn't it.

Now why couldn't the BBC have put a positive slant on it?

😕 I can't see any problem that story at all.

The BBC was simply informing people that the poor weather was causing problems for the Scottish Ambulance Service. They made it absolutely crystal clear that these problem were caused "due to the snow and ice" And the article is full of very "positive" comments such as :

"the ambulance service is working hard to ensure that that impact is minimised, prioritising emergency cases and taking a whole range of actions to ensure that it can respond quickly and to the standard that people expect it to."

"It is not surprising that in such extraordinary weather conditions response time performance has dropped temporarily, however all our staff deserve credit for their commitment in dealing with conditions and delivering services in the face of real adversity."

I can't see one single "negative" comment suggesting that the situation is unacceptable. And I can't for the life of me, see why anyone would go away with a negative impression of the Scottish Ambulance Service as a result of reading the article. What sort of idiot would blame the Ambulance Service after reading that ?

Perhaps you just think that the BBC shouldn't remind people that the Scottish Ambulance Service is struggling to answer emergency calls within its usual target times, and they shouldn't be informed that the service is doing it's best "in the face of real adversity" ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8448014.stm

Ernie – you have based your post on an assumption. It was not that article I was reading.

Fair enough. But I still can't see any problem with the bit you've copied and pasted – what did the rest of the article say…..any chance of a link ?

But .. only 65% of cases on Wednesday due to the snow and ice and the performance figure was as low as 53% seven days ago." BBC.

If you wanted to be positive you could say: Still managed 65% … and even in these extreme circumstances never dipped below a respectable 53%".

That would sound a lot better to me.

I think ISBI's point is that the default position of news is negative? No matter how great anyone does – they go for words like only, low, never …. etc

That would sound a lot better to me.

What do you mean ….. that it would sound as if everything was just hunky dory and fine ?

I think you might be missing the point of the story. Because of the weather, everything isn't fine and normal – that's the whole point. Nowhere in the article does it not suggest that the Ambulance Service aren't doing their utmost under difficult conditions (well not in the BBC article I read anyway)

Now I don't know, but I suspect that the response times for the Scottish Ambulance Service for Wednesday, would not normally be in the public domain by Friday. So I suspect that this story has probably been fed to the BBC by the Scottish Ambulance Service itself.

The decision was probably made that the public should be informed that they weren't able to meet their expected response times because of the difficult conditions, but they were working hard to do their best. The whole point being, "we are not able to achieve what we would like to achieve".

That is exactly how the BBC reported it, accompanied as it was, with lots of quotes about "commitment in dealing with conditions and delivering services in the face of real adversity"

This is just another "let's bash the BBC for any reason at all" non-story.

As ever, Doff's cap to Drac and his colleagues. I can barely imagine the satisfaction from doing a job that actually makes a difference to peoples lifes.

some teacher didn't want to make the effort to get to work?

…some parents don't want to make the effort to look after their children.

Is it worth questioning what is more important to you? (Not directed at anyone, just thinking out loud.)

My wife and me are both nurses (workshy lazy and overpaid according to many on here). Both been in work all week, except me who had Tuesday afternoon working from home as I needed to make sure the car was at home so she could get to work Wednesday morning. I am a community nurse and had that afternoon booked for paperwork so no-one lost out on visits and I would still have done emergencies from home if necessary.

It's been hard as the schools are closed at the moment but I do have sympathy with them. There has been no snow clearing or gritting at all on the roads around the schools. I went through yesterday and it was only just passable with no other cars in sight. Would be absolute carnage if 2000 kids were being dropped off.

I don't really believe that the teachers are lazy tossers, I am of the opinion that their superiors are telling them to stay home.

If your boss told you to stay off work would you still go in anyway?

I agree with ernie_lynch regarding this story.

My mates a Paramedic in North London and they have been finding it hell
as his area he covers is between the M25 and A406
been very frustrating for him being the halfwits on the roads
thinking they can drive like normal or not moving out the way
for them to pass.
I give my praises for all of the emergency services trying
to get to those who are needy in such times.

I'd like to complain about I'm surrounded By Idiots make negative comments about the BBC when all they have done in the piece he has copied and pasted is to state the facts. I personally don't want a BBC that puts a slant on it's reporting. Come on, you could have posted to say well done the BBC for objective reporting.

Now why couldn't the BBC OP have put a positive slant on it?

As ever, Doff's cap to Drac and his colleagues. I can barely imagine the satisfaction from doing a job that actually makes a difference to peoples lifes.

Cheers but so many other jobs too, including lazy teachers and nurses.

Most of the services or supposed to be running on responding and transporting only essential calls. Sadly that message isn't getting through to some so we're responding to cases we shouldn't even have to never mind travel as an emergency to them. Some of us, not sure if all services have this, can treat and recategorise patients at home informing them of other lines of care they can go trough.

I want to write much more about this but I better not on here.