999 - Emergency

[bainbrig]

Just watching a recent episode of “999 - what’s your emergency?”

It concentrated on the dire shortage of ambulance crews in Wiltshire and the consequent massive delays in getting help to people.

For instance, a75-year-old woman who’d fallen in her garden, broken her hip, and who was left lying on her grass on a cold evening (February) for over two hours, as the ambulances were all busy with higher priority calls.

Outrageous.

Austerity? All because governments have baled out the spivs and barrow boys in their banks and the Stock Exchange!

Will any of THEM be lying, in pain, for hours in the cold if they fall down? Will they heck as like.

[naomi24]

I kind of lost sympathy with ambulance crews after waiting 11 hours for them to turn up, and having eventually delivered the dying patient to hospital, proceeded to spend the next hour telling me their grievances and urging me to complain. I thought they must have finished their shift but upon enquiry, no they hadn’t. Nevertheless they were very clearly in no rush to tend the sick. There’s more than one side to every story.

[Mamyalynne]

I saw that episode, I rarely miss the programme - the lady was most gracious when they did arrive despite her pain.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I'm shocked by the Bainbrig and Naomi cases. The emergency ambulance and paramedic services where I live (West London) are very efficient. I know this from the response to health crises suffered by two of my close neighbours and more recently by my wife.

[Mamyalynne]

I have experienced both excellent service and on a couple of occasions shoddy service, once even reported a Paramedic for rudeness to a very ill patient.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Not the thread to argue with Bainbrig about "austerity".

It would be good, wouldn't it, Bainbrig, if the issue of the NHS (and it's more than just "funding") could be addressed across party lines?

[Theland]

Shame on you Nims. There is no way the ambulance crews warrant such criticism.

[naomi24]

Theland, shame on me why? For refusing to subscribe to the culture that decrees criticism of the NHS and its workers the most heinous of crimes? I don’t do holding hands and dancing around sanctimonious Maypoles. I live in rural England, my nearest hospital is 20 miles away. A GP ordered an ambulance and during the 11 hour wait I had three calls from the control centre who were aware that the patient didn’t need medical treatment but nevertheless organised two unrequested visits from paramedics – both of whom came from another hospital – a 50 mile round trip for each – and neither of whom could do anything whatsoever to help. How much did that cost the NHS? The ambulance crew eventually arrived and having delivered the patient to hospital, stayed whilst she was assessed, taken to a ward, and tucked up in bed. I asked why they stayed – wasn’t their duty finished once the patient was handed over to doctors? No, it wasn’t. The rules, apparently, dictate that the crew cannot leave until the patient is settled on a ward. Why? I have no idea – and neither did they. They were with us, I would estimate, about 3 hours, so if that’s the norm my question is how many patients are they actually attending to per shift? Frankly, despite having waited so long, I didn’t complain to them and had every sympathy with them - until they lingered around expounding their grievances and urging me to complain. Management of the organisation leaves much to be desired, for therein lies the rot, but that said, I perceived no sense of urgency from those men whatsoever – and knowing there were people waiting for them, as we had, and likely in need of medical assistance, that didn’t impress. Better hope it’s not you waiting for them the next time they air their grievances instead of getting on with the job. No apology from me.

[AZardoz]

Could be they are busy dealing with 'problems' like this:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Question1607843.html

[Zacs-Master]

The College of Paramedics define a Paramedics’ scope of practice as;
“A paramedic is an autonomous practitioner who has the knowledge, skills and clinical expertise to assess, treat, diagnose, supply and administer medicines, manage, discharge and refer patients in a range of urgent, emergency, critical or out of hospital settings”.

The HPCP Council describes their skills as:
‘understand the following aspects of biological science:
– disease and trauma processes and how to apply this knowledge to develop appropriate treatment plans for the patient's pre-hospital or out-of-hospital care’

‘know[ing]the indications and contra-indications of using specific paramedic techniques in pre-hospital and out-of-hospital care, including their limitations and modifications

[bainbrig]

My original point, skewed by others' agendas, was neither to criticise nor to praise the ambulance service of Wiltshire (although the paramedics do deserve huge praise and thanks from us).

It was to ask the question: what sort of society do we live in where we give priority to shovelling money at bankrupt banks and down-on-their-luck city spivs, rather than funding a 100% effective emergency service for our old and sick?


(And yes of course vetuste, there is a real debate to be had on how and where we spend money on the NHS, I quite agree, but only as a broader debate on where we spend ALL 'our' money.)

BillB

[webbo3]

there may be more ambulances available if it wasn't for fake calls and people with stupid things, like this.

https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/379058/999-numpties-The-daftest-calls-the-emergency-services-have-ever-had-revealed-in-new-book

[naomi24]

//skewed by others' agendas//

If you're talking about me I don't have an agenda.... but we are certainly shovelling money - much of it at the NHS and much of it going straight down the drain. Money isn't the solution for remedying the ills of the NHS. Effective management is.

[fiction-factory]

If we (Gordon Brown/Alistair Brown etc in cooperation with EU, US, G5 etc) ) hadn't stabilised the banking system back in 2008, bainbrig, we'd have been in such a mess there would have been far less money available for the NHS.

[bainbrig]

Hook, line, and sinker.

[naomi24]

Bainbrig yearns for the delights of communist Russia!

[Theland]

The ordinary paramedics just go where and when they are told.
Don't vent your spleen on the troops!

[Theland]

In 2011 Cameron reorganised the NHS breaking his promise and made the management more complicated than before. Additional costs?

[Spicerack]

naomi24/// Bainbrig yearns for the delights of communist Russia!///

He's certainly got it in for the last Labour Government.

[naomi24]

Troops who don’t do the job warrant spleen-venting. As I said, I hope the next time they decide to hang about bemoaning their lot rather than doing what they ought to be doing, you’re not the one waiting for an ambulance.