UKH

Just read this, and its spot on describing the frustration we all endure on an hourly basis.

This has been my working life for at least 3 years.😥

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/11/nhs-ambulance-service...

Was thinking of you and Stichplate as I read that.  FFS.  I just don't know how you manage to carry on every day.

It's a job and helps pay the bills.

Getting sent to jobs that never warranted an emergency ambulance is frustrating .... waiting outside hospitals to hand over a patient when you know jobs are stacking up is frustrating ... getting partnered with a soldier who can't do equipment checks, can't drive on blue lights  and can't treat patients - but getting classed by management as a fully crewed 999 ambulance - is frustrating ... clearing from a run of jobs that didn't need an ambulance only to find an elderly person has been lying on the floor with a NOF for hours is frustrating ... 

...but 8 years in and I still like the job. I worked in a couple of completely different industries for nearly 20 years before this and could go back ...but I like being a paramedic! There are plenty upsides to the job when you compare it to others, not just downsides. At the very least, I don't need to think about what to wear for work

I don't really understand why an ambulance  would be sent to someone who has eaten an out of date muffin?

Don't call handlers just tell them to ring 111 and make them sort themselves out ?

Genuine question, I'm ignorant of such things!

My guess would be that they report some sort of "symptom" from it which could actually be something serious. For example, if the muffin gave them heartburn, and they tell the call handler that they have chest pains. Chest pains could be heart attack, so while I'm sure the call handler doesn't think the out of date muffin has given them a heart attack, it could be incidental so they have to send ambulance anyway. It turns out just to be heartburn though, so waste of time.

Thank you (and Lemming and Stichtplate) for still loving the job anyway. We appreciate you, even if those above don't. 

In the nicest possible way, I hope I never use your services, but I am very glad to have the option!

We appreciate you, even if those above don't. 

Who has been disparaging?

I think girlymonkey was referring to senior management and the politicians by “those above”.

Yes, this! Sorry, maybe not clear enough!

I really appreciate that.

As for work, it's a slow train crash that I have been watching unfold since 2015, or thereabouts.

When the Tories gained power o immediately said you could kiss the NHS goodbye.

The electorate have very short memories.

As if that isn't bad enough ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-59968358

we far too tolerant of these people

Words can't describe how grateful we all are for your dedication and professionalism especially since the pandemic started. It is shocking how you have been treat by management. Not sure which trust you work for but NEAS has had their dinner breaks taken away and not sure if the same for you. They are so out of touch. Physical and mental fatigue must be at tipping point and yet your expected to deliver quality of care to the highest level despite being so over worked, tired and frustrated. I work in the fire service and meet ambulance crews regularly at incidents and most have about had enough, are exhausted, angry, frustrated and are only sticking it out for the people they serve. Morale must be so low. Management seem to think the answer is by working you harder not fixing the problem at hand. Years of under funding and lack of recruitment is catching up with the fire service now. Not sure if you're experiencing the same. 

Love to you all

I wouldn't go that far. Those who know me would be falling about laughing.

😜🤣

Ha

Oh well I appreciate your daft, laid back approach to your job. Sometimes isn't a bad thing. Does your service have army assisting yet?

Last time round, we had some military with us at Blackpool Station and we all got along very well. However because our job roles were very different, obviously, the military chaps were limited in their scope of practice.

Their assistance was very much appreciated and they had some amusing anecdotes to recount in the mess room.😀

Not working in this myself, I'd appreciate any guidance/opinions as to what is happening

In the article it says "..The ambulance service has been failing for years.." and recently when there were huge delays the ambulance service was kind of blamed and e.g. Scotland supplemented the service with Green ones.

Is this as simple as it appears to me, that the ambulance service is a victim not the cause and delays at hospitals admitting patients (etc etc) is the root cause (and/or lack of social services), making crews hang about hospitals for hours rather than being able to handover and move on quickly.

Am I misunderstanding this, is it more complicated than I imagine, what is the "real" story

(but be careful, big-brother is reading! and I understand any replies are purely your personal and unofficial opinions)

I refer the honourable gentleman to an answer I gave earlier.

10 years of austerity and a Tory government has systemically broken the NHS.

Some may say with the ultimate goal to say the NHS failed all by itself. However we, the Tories, know about this wonderful Private Health Care System which is ready to roll out.

999 calls up 30% to 40% in thirty years. Over the same time period the ambulance service ethos has changed from “scoop and shoot” (get them to hospital quick) to “stay and play” (assess, stabilise, transport).

The new thing over recent years is “see and treat”. The powers that be want us to treat at home or sign post to other services, 33% of our patients.

The Ambulance Service role has expanded hugely. Funding hasn’t.

We are basically a cheap sticking plaster for a shortage of doctors.

We are also a cheap sticking plaster for Social Services and Mental Health.

...and Mummy

Please don't misinterpret this one (I don't think the sun shines out of doctors' backsides, and I'm appreciative of the skills and dedication of paramedic and ambulance)

but the move away from scoop and shoot sounds like it's squandering the golden hour, well certainly for rta and trauma anyway

This is a much more informative answer than simply "lack of funding" it answers the why as well as the what

Say a nice little old lady in her Morris Traveller T bones you off your Fireblade on the A49 one rainy evening…. Boom. You’re in a life threatening condition. Clock’s ticking

3 minutes for her to pull over, ascertain you’re  not dead (yet) apologies profusely, find her phone and ring 999

5 minutes to get through to a call handler and tell them what’s happened. Call handler passes to dispatch to task the nearest crew. Crew sticks the blues on and starts burning diesel.

12 minutes to get there. (Pushing it- that’s average response to a cat 1 currently)

15 minutes to put on PPE, gather your kit, de-bus, conduct a primary assessment, make sure there’s no airway, breathing or bleeding issues that need immediate attention, radio trauma cell, conduct secondary survey, package so that you’re not going to kill or disable them simply by moving them. Get them back on the truck. You may or may not also have to get a line in to start giving meds before you move onto the truck (To be honest, we aim for 15 but it often takes longer)

That’s 35 minutes of your Golden Hour gone already and for major trauma you’re not going to the closest A&E, you’re going to a major trauma centre. By the time you’re there that hour’s gone.

Luckily for you, The Golden Hour refers to the necessity of providing medical care within 60 minutes of traumatic injury. That’s what ambulance crews are trained to do. 
 

That is, if there are any crews available.

Just before Christmas when it was really busy, I took a patient to hospital showing signs of a stroke. I got that patient to hospital within the first hour of the signs appearing.

There is a four hour window to start appropriate treatment, three of which were left on the clock in A&E. I called in advance to say this was a priority.

I waited outside the hospital for well over 4 hours, and everybody knowing this medical emergency, before I was allowed in with my patient. This was just to get though the door, not Triage to start treatment.

This story is not unique and is happening in every hospital throughout the UK right now.

I tried everything to get my patient seen asap while watching the clock tick. Nobody was at fault and the medical staff in the hospital wanted to help but they could not by the simple fact that there were other poorly people in a higher medical need at the time who were also waiting to get to triage.

Such situations happen on an hourly basis for all staff, on the road and hospital staff. For all of us it is mentally, physically, emotionally and psychologically draining with no ending in sight any time over the next few years.

The system is broken and the staff who work within that system are breaking both physically and psychologically.

This is cheering me up for my weekend of night shifts during the horrible winter months of so called Winter Pressures.

It never calms down to let you realise it's winter time because every day is just as bad.

The system is broken and we are dropping like flies and not because of Covid. That is just another straw on the camel's back.

And while I'm on my soapbox venting/ranting I despise Boris for saying the NHS is on a War Footing.

We are not at war. This belittles all those service men and women who were in a war, conflict, battle or euphemistically were peace keeping. They were in dangerous situations where I never signed up for and would shit myself to be in.

We are not enduring a Dunkirk Spirit just to make Boris look noble. We are in an endless cycle of unrelenting work pressure with no end in sight for this and the next government term of office.

Yet I enjoy my job and am lucky to have employment with a good wage compared to many struggling to keep a roof over their heads and worrying how they are going to pay the looming fuel price rises.

Certainly whatever efforts you guys and gals give on our behalf, you can't make Boris look noble. As great as you are that's one miracle well beyond human capability

I considered retraining from an in-patient Orthopaedic specialist OT to become a paramedic, and I very much think that I would enjoy the (actual) work, but given the state of play, which I'm very aware of, and you have reinforced the accuracy of, it would simply be a silly thing to do for me sadly. As I'm sure you know, it's also a s**t show in the hospitals too. Keep up the amazing effort. 

Don't let our moaning put you off. It's an amazing job.

It's just that it really helps to come on here and vent to a load of anonymous strangers sometimes.

Our crew mates live it, our bosses don't want to hear it, their bosses don't even want to acknowledge a problem exists and we certainly don't want to keep banging on to our friends and partners about it. 

So cheers for listening UKC, and sorry if it gets a bit repetitive.