Ooh I may have seen you at MP or over the road at NP v8!

‘Tis quite likely <waves>. I’d be the bloke who’s popped in to chat to the logistics chap whilst looking a little ill at ease and feeling a bit trapped… it’s a strange environment for road staff; feels like you’re venturing into the lair of the beast… esp MP.(thats maybe just me being a bit dramatic, mind)

Worked on the road in ambos for longer than I care to share. Have been in the control room many a time; and have nothing but respect for the call takers, but seriously, couldn’t do their job. Constant, non stop calls, micromanaged scripts to follow, telling offs for deviation from the script or choosing the wrong line of questioning, target times to obtain info, and that’s all before you take the unfortunately too often obnoxious public into account. All for some of the lowest paid staff in the Trust? Rather you than me bud. Get out in the open. Meet real people. Choose lumberjacking or something.

Maybe science can make us some genetically modified trees that don’t produce evil particulates when burnt?

NO! BECUZ GM BAD, KAY!!!!

Ah right I got confused when you were talking abut double paramedic crews being beneficial

Ah, I see. By ‘double crewed paramedic ambulance’, I meant a DCA with a para on, not two paras. Double para crews are an expensive luxury, but good for morale (and telly, apparently). We Don’t have ECAs in WMAS any more. Just student Paras/techs.

but we don’t have to burn the existing ones first.

We don’t have to, but we like to. And as you correctly point out, you can grow more, so it’s sustainable, unlike gas. Still probably a bad idea in cities though.

Stealth edit for the wink; it wasn’t meant in a knobby way, soz. There are exempt woodburning stoves now. That you can burn wood on, in smokeless areas. even though they still smoke, just not as much. It’s a bit odd.

if you live in a smokeless zone you can only burn smokeless solid fuel. Wood isn’t a smokeless solid fuel so you shouldn’t be burning it.**

So all this talk about banning wood burners is cobblers. Its already covered by existing laws.*
You’re right; you’re talking cobblers. 😉

The appliance can either be a dedicated wood burning stove or a multi fuel stove (which can also burn coal and other approved fuels). DEFRA approved only applies to the burning of wood in a smoke control area, you can not burn normal coal on any DEFRA appliance however, you can burn smokeless coal/fuel.

Anyway; I hope that wood burners are banned in all built up areas; damn stinky and antisocial habit; I’d be grumpy if my next door neighbours in a city lit up every night, far too concentrated a population for that malarkey. Also would make wood cheaper for mee…

I think his point was that if you just left the tree as it was, and burnt enough gas to heat your house, you would emit far less carbon.

Yes but it was a bad point because trees should (and largely are as it’s good business as well as good for the planet) be replanted; it’s the definition of sustainable, and arguably carbon neutral. Gas fields, not so easy to refill with newly captured carbon.

I don’t agree that burning wood is not something you could class as carbon neutral. That wood has taken decades to fix all that carbon, in the past and then today when you burn it, all that carbon is released into the atmosphere in one hit and in greater quantities than if you’d burnt natural gas for your heating. That carbon could have stayed fixed in timber products rather than in the atmosphere.

Not sure if joking… 😕

Wood as fuel isn’t carbon carbon neutral, but not for the reasons you suggest, it’s main losses are through processing and distribution. Hell of a lot closer to neutral than natural gas though… 😯

Not in my patch thanks, Bruneep, you keep your hose pipes and we’ll keep our bandages. 😉 We’re managing just fine. Plus there’s only a few of you compared to us; you’d barely make a scratch on our work load! 😛

You’re joking right?

I’m not arguing against skill mix, I’m pointing out that non clinical lifting crews don’t work. (The ECA thing is a separate issue)

WMAS don’t routinely put out lots of double paramedics. Y’know, telly n’stuff.

It can be done.

It certainly can, and trust me, there is work ongoing. However, I certainly don’t want to be the one up in front of a clever barrister answering the question; <cynical hat> “So, Mr V8ninety, just why DID you refuse to help my black, disabled, socially isolated and so obviously at risk client when he was self evidently crying out for help?” </cynical hat>

I was thinking more about when one crew attends and they can’t lift or move a patient like the lady with hoist or the guy a couple of weeks back with the dislocated knee and the narrow staircase.
They then summon another fully equipped ambulance with two more trained medics when what they really need are a pair of burly porters.
A secondary support crew who assist with the logistical problems rather than the clinical problems.

This kind of thing has been tried, and it doesn’t work out as cost effective. You’ve still got to equip staff and fuel the vehicle, the only saving is the (slightly; we’re hardly expensive) lower cost of wages for non clinicians. You then have to keep them utilised for the whole shift. The very specific jobs that they would be useful for come in all over the region, at any time, sometimes four or more at once, sometimes none for hours, sometimes hours of travelling time between them. You would have clinical staff waiting far ages for the humperdumpers to arrive. A double crewed paramedic ambulance is the most versatile resource; it can go to any job, convey anything, and if one can’t do it, two almost certainly can. And there’s lots of them. Better to equip them to manage (pretty much) anything.

…understand that he will not get a blue light response to his frequent calls, even if there is a risk that one day he has a genuine medical emergency that is missed?

Kinda what happens already, as you can see, WMAS held onto his call for hours and eventually only sent a resource when police were available. The problem is;

if there is a risk that one day he has a genuine medical emergency that is missed?

Who owns that risk? A common sense approach would suggest he does, but legally; if an ambulance service were to refuse to attend and serious harm or death cane about as a result, I’m pretty sure they’d be answering some difficult questions.

Midwelsh border/nouveau Shropshire. No one out of the area seems to be able to place me. Northerners think I sound welsh, southerners think I sound brummie, Brummies think I sound posh, Americans think I sound Australian. Dunno what Australians think.

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.

Always happy to click on a link that may contain butt cheeks (esp female, bonus); but what or who an Earth is a flapjackie? Urban dictionary did not help…

Commercial property is interesting; hadn’t thought of that. Any tips on what sort of commercial property to look at?

Doesn’t need to be very liquid. Am probably slipping into higher rate tax, just, although sal sac car may take me down below.

NHS pension scheme, so not bad, but can’t top up. Thanks all, esp THM for useful offering; not like you have any real world money smarts on which to offer advice! 😉 (or is it just too piddling for you to bother with…)

Maybe your speedo isn’t what you think it is?

Don’t be daft; it’s a Volkswagen. Completely trustworthy when it come to reporting figures of all types. Oh. Hang on…

Almost as much room as the pick up but a slightly more flexible for family use. Obviously not as good as a pickup for site use.

Killer road tax* compared to the pickup equivalent? Was heartily put off a pathfinder when I saw it was a small fortune annually to the tax man, when he’s already getting a sizeable cut from the higher fuel consumption.

*i know, it’s not a road tax…

But they were all LIMITED TO 56… has this requirement been lifted?

Just watched about two minutes of the second video, thanks. Looked like a fairly quick and effective way of killing lots of sheep to me. Has put me off kebabs for a little while though, so maybe job done?

The jab shouldn’t give you any side-effects. Inactive virus surely?

Can’t give you flu. But WORKS by firing up your immune system, so can and often does give mild side effects such as feeling shit and fever. Bin there, dun that, still having jab, as MUCH less badderer than actual flu.

Can make you feel like shit for a day or two (from experience), but still better than actual flu by a long chalk. I’ll be getting one (via employer, again).

The problem with ‘pure’ capitalism is that it does not confer any special status on humans over any other resource. It relies upon the morality of individual business managers (ha!) or legislation to make businesses treat people like people and not just ‘resource’. The contractor model is often people opting out of this legislative framework designed to mostly protect them for a perceived individual gain, which actually often harms the interests of the many.

Tbf; I’ve seen a few different ways of dying (human variety) and I don’t think bleeding to death is that bad on the scale of ‘ways to go’. I should imagine that when done properly and both carotids are severed, the creature is rendered unconscious almost immediately, and with very little pain, so long as the blade is sufficiently sharp. Stunning can go horribly wrong as well; voltages can be insufficient to render unconsciousness, bolt guns can miss brain stems. I’d take a razor sharp blade over electrocution any day, having experienced non fatal incidents of both, by accident.

why do they offer private hospitals then? and use same surgeons

Capacity. Surgeons only do the carpentry bit; this is important but they can bang em out quicker than there are post op recovery and beyond beds available, would be my educated guess.

Nobody? I drove past stragglers pushing their bikes up hills on the way to work tonight; 100 miles is actually a fair undertaking!

it is illegal to be drunk in a public place

This might be technically true, but it’s certainly not enforced.

I like old churches, they have a nice feel to them usually, and are testament to what people can do when inspired to work together for a communal good. And a lot of them a properly old!

On that article; what a lovely community feel that the author paints a picture of. What a pity that humans seem to need (or think that they need) a common belief in a deity in order to act like that. As an atheist, I feel the same way about community, morals and general rule number oneness as they do, but I feel excluded by them because I can’t help but think the foundations of their belief system are daft.

I was surprised that uninjured drunks would tie up resources at A&E. First I’d heard of it. Surely, the solution is as you say – a separate place, not necessarily a working medical facility. But as you say, ideally people should take responsibility for themselves. But that should apply to everything, shouldn’t it?

‘A seperate place’ would require funding, housing and staffing by relatively expensive clinicians proficient in airway and behaviour management as well as a security element to safeguard these staff. The funding, in order for it to be cost effective, would have to come from the budgets of the areas that it is providing relief to; namely NHS budgets. So better to look after these often unpleasant, occasionally obnoxious patients in ED, where you already have the experienced staff in situ, and all the options open for escalating care should someone become properly poorly.

Frustratingly, ED is the most appropriate place for heavily intoxicated individuals, with appropriate staffing and support, because every now and then, these patients need active intervention to prevent their deaths.

How was this for you guys? Had to battle my way home through closed roads at 0630hrs this morning as I live on the route (‘Battle = could you let me through please, I live there” “yes okay”), and I’ve been lying in bed listening to the riders zip past my window for the past half hour. Sounded good fun. Was it worth the fairly hefty entry?

Have heard there’s been multiple attempts to sabotage the route; tacks, razor blades etc. Hope the organisers managed to sweep it all up before it affected any riders.

The amount of tomato juice that I can drink in one sitting.

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.

Edit edit; wrong thread oops

Anyone updated a 5s with this iOS? Good, bad or indifferent idea? It’s there if I want it, pleasingly it’s not trying to push it on me like it does sometimes, but I have no idea if I do want it…

And it’s not like you can undo it, if it buggers the phone up.

Ooh that’s Walton Goggins. Fond of him in Justified. Not sure how much of that was script and character vs actor, but he’s capable of entertaining, that’s for sure

Thanks chaps. My time was a more sedate 31mins, but it feels like quite the achievement nonetheless. I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to run 5k before, it’s always hurt my lower legs too much, leading to me giving up. I’m going to work on getting a little faster and a little further now…

And let’s face it; if Cannock Chase is famous for anything… beware horny marauding footballers!

I just completed the C25k program today. Feeling rather chuffed with my small achievement, even though it is somewhat humbled by the stuff above, lol.