Emmercency

[Bazile]

This is indeed worrying .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38398244

Perhaps i was a bit naive in thinking that if someone needed the services of the emergency ambulance service ; then any crew dispatched , would be fully trained and qualified and have tip top equipment

[Sqad]

This was just an allegation and refuted by the company.

[Bazile]

Sqad

I was watching the Victoria Derbyshire programme o BBC 2 this morning , where they ran a piece on this .

Apparently the CQC had investigated the company in question and had reported that their service was not up to the level required

[Sqad]

Bazille ...if the allegations are found to be true.......then this quality of care is unacceptable.

[Buenchico]

Most of the problems seem to relate to patient transport services though, rather than to paramedic teams on emergency calls. Given that many hospital trusts rely heavily upon volunteers, using their own cars, to get patients to and from hospital anyway, I can't see that there's a great deal of difference between a patient being in a private car (with no blue lights and no emergency training for the driver) or in a 'patient transport' ambulance.

I think that I might be rather more concerned about the ridiculous strains that some people are placing upon our ambulance services:
http://tinyurl.com/z6ssust

[Bazile]

According to some of the ex employees interviewed , some of the staff weren't competent in basic first aid

[Bazile]

There is a civil case going on where the staff who responded to an emergency , failed to recognise that the patient was having a heart attack

[Sqad]

Bazille

\\\\ failed to recognise that the patient was having a heart attack\\\

I bet that has happened to every doctor on the medical list....it has certainly happened to me.

[Bazile]

Indeed , i see it is in the report in the link

[Bazile]

Aren;'t doctors infallible then ?

[Sqad]

LOL^^^

[Old_Geezer]

Must always be a risk if hiving out responsibility for something important to the cheapest bidder rather than controlling/providing it for oneself.

[Buenchico]

Heart attacks are notoriously difficult to identify unless they've got the 'classic' symptoms of pain shooting down the patient's left arm immediately before he keels over, while clutching his chest.

As head of first aid in a school, I failed to realise that a colleague of mine was having a heart attack. (No pain. Apparently just a simple faint, in a very hot and stuffy room, where it took rather longer than usual for consciousness to return). The following morning a different first aider also failed to spot that the same colleague was having a second heart attack, as did the staff at the hospital's A&E department. It wasn't until they'd carried out a blood test that they suddenly rushed her into intensive care.

[douglas9401]

"Aren;'t doctors infallible then ?"

Only if they've been to Pope school as well.

[EDDIE51]

These are 'patient transport ambulances' NOT emergency ambulances .
They only rarely need to use 'blue lights'
As said most of this work is done by volunteers in various 'community transport' services. My home town has such a service mostly done using the drivers own cars, but they also have 2 or 3 minibuses that are registered as ambulances ( it's so they don't have to pay road tax!)

[Bazile]

EDDIE51

//These are 'patient transport ambulances' NOT emergency ambulances //

NO they are not 'patient transport ambulances' - they are emergency blue light ambulances that is the subject here , if you read the link properly .

[Bazile]

The company of course does non emergency ambulance work - however the emphasis in the programme was about staff responding to emmergency call outs

[EDDIE51]

From the link >>
Dan Duke worked in patient transport for the PAS in 2013 before he was sacked.
His job sometimes involved transferring patients between hospitals.
Although this can require the use of blue emergency lights if the patient is seriously unwell, he says the company gave him a minimal amount of training to drive under emergency conditions.

They are 'transport ambulances' that MAY need to use Blue Lights if a patient becomes ill during the journey. They are NOT the 999 response ambulances, that are crewed by paramedics !