Ask a Paramedic anything at all...

[RTB]

The Mad Monk said:

smiffy180 said:

My partner reckons if I were to be in a position where I needed medical attention but was unable to move from the 3rd floor (where our bedroom is), the attending paramedics would be unable to take me out for the house due to my weight (25st) because of health and safety stopping them from doing so?

Is this true?

1. Lose weight. A lot of it.

2. Move your bedroom to the ground floor.

3. Lose weight. Yes you can.

I think Smiffy might be big in the Eddie Hall sort of big rather than the stomach stapling sort of a way.

[magooagain]

On another post below.

Edited by magooagain on Monday 15th January 21:46

[tighnamara]

What’s your view on single manning of ambulances, seemingly in the last year it has been quite high due to holidays and illness.

Presuming that if they can’t get someone to cover, the ambulance would be taken off the road for the shift.
Are calls vetted more when only one person attending or does police have to be in attendance ?
Sounds quite exposed for one person attending a scene unaware what to expect.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

tighnamara said:

What’s your view on single manning of ambulances, seemingly in the last year it has been quite high due to holidays and illness.

Presuming that if they can’t get someone to cover, the ambulance would be taken off the road for the shift.
Are calls vetted more when only one person attending or does police have to be in attendance ?
Sounds quite exposed for one person attending a scene unaware what to expect.

We've been using single-manned ambulances for years - they're called cars haha! But in all seriousness, there are one or two occasions where we might have to man an actual ambulance single-manned, and it's no problem at all for me, it's no different from being on the car really.

Out Trust does not like doing it, however, and will do everything they can to avoid it. This is because if you turn up at an address and the patient DOES require transport, and I point out that I cannot transport them in the big yellow bus outside myself and I will have to radio for a backup crew, then we get met with a few blank looks and questions of 'well then why did they send you?' In the instances where I may turn up to work, and not have a crew-mate to work with, I might get sent to another station, or someone might get sent to me, so we can 'pair up.' Or I may start a shift single-manned and then 2 hours later when someone else turns up we get paired up. It's unusual to go a whole 10 or 12 hour shift single manned on a full ambulance.

With regard to vetting and police presence - no, this does not happen. That said, in October 2017, all ambulance trusts nationally started to respond to a new system of telephone triage, with less focus on arrival times and targets, and more focus on dispatching the most appropriate resource for the patient's needs. I see this as a very good thing, and a really positive progressive step forwards in terms of organisational change. Proposals of this scale normally move at the pace of geology in the service - we don't like change! So it's good to see. Took a lot of planning and implementation, but seems to be working well.

As for being exposed attending a scene unaware what to expect - I think I covered that in a previous post, but essentially it doesn't faze us. Once you've done this job for a while, you've pretty much seen anything and I can't remember the last time I was surprised or caught out when I arrived as first on scene. As I said, we can call for a myriad of backup anyway, most of which will arrive pretty quickly. We have plans and protocols in place to get on with alone, until backup arrives, which we will just automatically drop into because of our training.

Finally, I have a data screen in the vehicle which gives a reasonably good description of what I am responding to, and often as more details roll in, my dispatcher will radio me or send me a text message with updates. They're pretty good like that.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

magooagain said:

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=9126...

I thought some of you folks might be interest in the above FB link.

It's about a job position. Not sure if it's with the pilgrim bandit charity or another outfit.

Linky no worky.

[anonymous-user]

tighnamara said:

What’s your view on single manning of ambulances, seemingly in the last year it has been quite high due to holidays and illness.

Presuming that if they can’t get someone to cover, the ambulance would be taken off the road for the shift.
Are calls vetted more when only one person attending or does police have to be in attendance ?
Sounds quite exposed for one person attending a scene unaware what to expect.

In London, we have lots of single crew assets.
Solo-crewed cars, motorcycles, bicycles and, in some locations or for special events, foot patrols.
Bearing in mind some of the infrastructure in town, the bike's (powered or not) can get places an ambulance or even a car just can't.
The big railway stations, Westfield shopping malls, inside the terminals at Heathrow, along the towpath of Regents Canal....they're a real asset.
We don't single-crew ambulances, so if someone goes off sick either a solo-responder will get pulled off a car or another depleted call-sign will amalgamate.
As for the risk to crews, solo or otherwise, it's down to personal risk assessment/tolerance and a gut feeling. We're issued police-spec stab vests too which crews are at liberty to wear as and when they see fit. I know some solo responders wear theirs by default.
I've only ever donned mine once - after the Westminster attack when we were deployed to Green Park tube on an unrelated job but still close enough (in both time and location) for there to be a significant risk of further attacks.
If there's any suggestion of edged weapons or firearms on scene, Plod are usually already there before we are, and if not we have absolute authority to refuse entry to premises if the immediate risk or threat is deemed too great.
Only had one patient Tasered so far.

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 15th January 21:20

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Crossflow Kid said:

tighnamara said:

What’s your view on single manning of ambulances, seemingly in the last year it has been quite high due to holidays and illness.

Presuming that if they can’t get someone to cover, the ambulance would be taken off the road for the shift.
Are calls vetted more when only one person attending or does police have to be in attendance ?
Sounds quite exposed for one person attending a scene unaware what to expect.

In London, we have lots of single crew assets.
Solo-crewed cars, motorcycles, bicycles and, in some locations or for special events, foot patrols.
Bearing in mind some of the infrastructure in town, the bike's (powered or not) can get places an ambulance or even a car just can't.
The big railway stations, Westfield shopping malls, inside the terminals at Heathrow, along the towpath of Regents Canal....they're a real asset.
We don't single-crew ambulances, so if someone goes off sick either a solo-responder will get pulled off a car or another depleted call-sign will amalgamate.
As for the risk to crews, solo or otherwise, it's down to personal risk assessment/tolerance and a gut feeling. We're issued police-spec stab vests too which crews are at liberty to wear as and when they see fit. I know some solo responders wear theirs by default.
I've only ever donned mine once - after the Westminster attack when we were deployed to Green Park tube on an unrelated job but still close enough (in both time and location) for there to be a significant risk of further attacks.
If there's any suggestion of edged weapons or firearms on scene, Plod are usually already there before we are, and if not we have absolute authority to refuse entry to premises if the immediate risk or threat is deemed to great.
Only had one patient Tasered so far.

Edited by Crossflow Kid on Monday 15th January 21:04

Wow - I'm pretty sheltered and innocent bumbling round my rural jobs, which normally comprise endless fallers! Seriously though, I don't know how you hack working in London doing this job - I know I couldn't.

[anonymous-user]

helmutlaang said:

My partner had a really bad breakdown around March last year which resulted in me calling 101 for advice. They contacted the local crisis centre and said crisis would call me back within an hour.
They never called back.
She has never been referred for councilling by her GP

Very sorry to hear this. As mentioned earlier across the thread, MH services are under enormous pressure in recent years, some of it due to higher expectations by patients, some of it due to fear of liability leading to services (being forced in to) taking on too much.
Also, and I'm not excusing or defending your GP...simply explaining....mental health can be so very difficult to diagnose and assess sometimes, with GPs on something of a knife edge of not treating someone who's worthy of it and over-treating and potentially incarcerating someone who isn't.

[tighnamara]

Thanks Ray and Crossflow.
Great work you do.

[magooagain]

Paramedics Required to teach military style Medical training in Dubai.
Salary $89K USD
Full time position
5-3Year Contract
25days Hols rising to 30 Days in second year
$1200 USD Flight Allowance
Email [e-mail] for more details


This is from the Facebook page of the respected pilgrim bandit charity that helps injured ex military people.
I just thought it maybe of some use to someone.

[anonymous-user]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Seriously though, I don't know how you hack working in London doing this job - I know I couldn't.

Shift-swap some time?
London is pretty special for all the ES.
In one shift I've gone from treating a stinky homeless alcoholic in a bus shelter, to the spouse of a leading MP in their Pimlico apartment, to an intoxicated minor in a well known night club, to a 6 week-old baby in a council high-rise.
We stopped a performance of Les Miserables once too.
It's what keeps it interesting.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

magooagain said:

Paramedics Required to teach military style Medical training in Dubai.
Salary $89K USD
Full time position
5-3Year Contract
25days Hols rising to 30 Days in second year
$1200 USD Flight Allowance
Email [e-mail] for more details


This is from the Facebook page of the respected pilgrim bandit charity that helps injured ex military people.
I just thought it maybe of some use to someone.

Thank you so much for posting this with us in mind, it's appreciated.

And yeah, I have seen things like this now and again - indeed some of the 'young gun' Paramedics I qualified with are already doing similarly exciting stuff, outside of the UK. Good luck to them, but I am far too old now to consider any excitement on this level!

And as an aside, maybe I am being a wee bit risk averse - but from what I have read about how some Brits and Europeans fall fowl of the different laws out there, I'm afraid you would not get me to work in the middle east for a million pounds! Seems like a bit of a minefield at times.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

tighnamara said:

Thanks Ray and Crossflow.
Great work you do.

A lovely compliment, much appreciated, thank you too.

[Ruskie]

Crossflow Kid said:

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Seriously though, I don't know how you hack working in London doing this job - I know I couldn't.

Shift-swap some time?
London is pretty special for all the ES.
In one shift I've gone from treating a stinky homeless alcoholic in a bus shelter, to the spouse of a leading MP in their Pimlico apartment, to an intoxicated minor in a well known night club, to a 6 week-old baby in a council high-rise.
We stopped a performance of Les Miserables once too.
It's what keeps it interesting.

I concur. I work in a busy city centre but London isn’t for me!

[anonymous-user]

Ruskie said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Seriously though, I don't know how you hack working in London doing this job - I know I couldn't.

Shift-swap some time?
London is pretty special for all the ES.
In one shift I've gone from treating a stinky homeless alcoholic in a bus shelter, to the spouse of a leading MP in their Pimlico apartment, to an intoxicated minor in a well known night club, to a 6 week-old baby in a council high-rise.
We stopped a performance of Les Miserables once too.
It's what keeps it interesting.

I concur. I work in a busy city centre but London isn’t for me!

I'll admit, being London-based was partly due to LAS offering training places at the time I joined. My intention is to move (to SCAS ideally) but I've found places for Techs to transfer are limited. It seems Trusts want either fully Q'd medics or fresh-off-the-boat newbies to start from scratch, with the intention of training them right through.
Unfortunately, LAS training is so haphazard and poorly administered I simply don't trust them to deliver decent paramedic training, plus they're the only Trust without university affiliation so the end product is non-graduate paramedic registration as opposed to the full degree.

[jet_noise]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Thank you so much for posting this with us in mind, it's appreciated.

And yeah, I have seen things like this now and again - indeed some of the 'young gun' Paramedics I qualified with are already doing similarly exciting stuff, outside of the UK. Good luck to them, but I am far too old now to consider any excitement on this level!

And as an aside, maybe I am being a wee bit risk averse - but from what I have read about how some Brits and Europeans fall fowl of the different laws out there, I'm afraid you would not get me to work in the middle east for a million pounds! Seems like a bit of a minefield at times.

That's because you're chicken

(Nor me for any amount!)

[anonymous-user]

^ Canada is offering a similar (£) package at the moment and I know where I'd rather go.

[anonymous-user]

Those who were asking how best to assist an ambulance through traffic, this pretty much covers it:
https://youtu.be/6TeSlSH_lBc

[kowalski655]

tighnamara said:

Thanks Ray and Crossflow.
Great work you do.

+1 VERY much seconded!

When my daughter was 1st diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, we had no idea on the day she fell ill. She woke up looking grey, and we took the mick out of her as she looked just like a zombie
Got to the GP & he was more concerned that she may have taken some of wife's painkillers, but it took the paramedics to see that she was on the way to a very bad DKA coma. They were the ones who stabilised her, and for that (& other attendances ) I am eternally grateful.
Although 3 days in ICU for her literally turned my hair grey overnight

[zetec]

Back in 2016 I was unfortunate to witness a stabbing that turned out to be fatal. I was with the guy on the floor on the phone to 999 until the first Police turned up. I was told to hang around (my car was within the corden so couldn’t go anywhere) as a witness. Paramedics were there and air ambulance, they were working on the victim for nearly an hour. One thing I did see before I was moved further away, it looked like paramedics/doctors were putting what I can only describe as drips into his knees, why was this done?