Ambulance tea break death
Discussion
Surprised this hasn't been discussed here (sorry if it has and I've been blind/stupid):
Woman died after ambulance driver ignored 999 call while on tea break
An ambulance driver in Moray decided not to respond to a 999 call because he was on a tea break while a woman had a fatal heart attack 800 yards from his base.
A probe is under way after Owen McLaughlin refused to respond to the emergency call after Mandy Mathieson took ill only two minutes from where he was. The relief technician "chose" not to go to 33-year-old Mandy Mathieson's aid not far from the depot in Tomintoul.
An ambulance crew from Grantown had to rush 15 miles to her home which took 21 minutes.
Woman died after ambulance driver ignored 999 call while on tea break
An air ambulance was also scrambled but Miss Mathieson, who suffered a blood clot, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her family is making a complaint to Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Ambulance Service.
His colleague, part-time driver Shirley Keith, has also complained about his actions and has not returned to work since the incident on October 16. She was also on duty that day but was at home in the village's Conglass Lane when Miss Mathieson's partner, Bobby Taylor, made the emergency call at 12.45pm.
The control centre in Inverness contacted Mr McLaughlin and asked him to attend. Miss Keith, 43, said: "I heard the air ambulance going over the top of my house. I noticed an ambulance at Mandy's house at the bottom of the road.
"I phoned the station. I said: 'Owen what's going on? There's an air ambulance at the bottom of my road'.
"His exact words were 'Shirley, you're not going to like what I'm about to say. They shouted me on my break but I refused to go." She added: "I was totally numb with disbelief, I just hung up the phone.
"We may not have been able to make a difference to Mandy but we were only two minutes away from her and he's got all the equipment, including a defibrillator, in the back of the ambulance.
"When Mandy really needed help he let her down. That is so wrong."
Family connection
An ironic twist to the saga is that Miss Mathieson's late grandfather, Charlie Skene, was the village's ambulance driver in the past and had successfully campaigned for a dedicated vehicle for the area.
Her sister, Michelle Fernie, 39, of Tomintoul, is also in the service, as an ambulance technician, while Miss Fernie's husband is a paramedic.
Miss Mathieson's uncle, also Charlie Skene, said: "We're disgusted that the service has come to this. We've just been so badly let down.
"You're supposed to be working to save someone's life. My father fought for years for a full time service in Tomintoul.
"The number of times we've been sitting at Christmas dinner and we'd have to get up and leave because somebody needed an ambulance, and then when we need it we're let down like this."
Miss Mathieson's family said their lives have been shattered by the loss of their "shining star".
And Miss Mathieson's partner, Bobby Taylor, 29, said he could not believe she was gone. He said: "No words can describe it. She was everything."
McLaughlin has been slated across all the papers, but it has been so badly reported and only a part story told:
Row over tea break cash is blamed after 999 tragedy
AN AMBULANCE manager has told how he is ashamed to be part of the service after a driver did not respond to a call-out to a woman who later died.
Mandy Mathieson, 33, died after suffering a heart attack just 800 yards from the ambulance station in the Speyside village of Tomintoul last month.
The station received a 999 call but the technician on duty, Owen McLauchlan, was on a rest break and did not respond to the call.
Another ambulance was sent from Grantown-on-Spey, arriving in 21 minutes, followed by an air ambulance eight minutes later, but Ms Mathieson died.
Mr McLauchlan, who was providing cover in Tomintoul while the full-time local crew - Ms Mathieson's sister and brother-in-law - were on holiday, has been suspended pending an investigation by the Health Professions Council.
The incident has outraged Ms Mathieson's family who are demanding an end to ambulance crews being allowed to opt out of responding to emergency calls during teabreaks.
It has also prompted anger from ambulance staff in the region, who have blamed a "pathetic" £250 payment offer to opt-out of rest breaks as the cause of the problem.
One ambulance manager, who asked not to be named, told The Scotsman: "It is not the first time this has happened in my division and it won't be the last. I feel ashamed to be a manager in this service."
He added: "On the face of it, the story will be presented that the member of staff was on a tea break and didn't respond. This is not the case."
He said the background to the incident can be traced to when the working week was cut from 40 hours to 37 hours. He claims many ambulance services across the UK then offered "availability payments" - some of around £1,200 a year - for staff to work during meal breaks. This is voluntary and staff have an annual opportunity to opt in or out of this.
He went on: "The SAS (Scottish Ambulance Service) offered a pathetic £250 per annum. It was the point of view of senior management staff that this was all they could afford.
"If a member of staff chose not to accept the money then they were not available during their meal breaks and were entitled to leave the station during their breaks. I know that some members of staff have chosen not to accept the availability payments because of the way they have been treated by staff."
A SAS spokesman said: "Under UK NHS pay arrangements, staff are entitled to an uninterrupted break during their shifts. In Scotland ambulance staff can waive that entitlement if they choose to do so in the interests of patient care."
Ms Mathieson's partner Bobby Taylor said he hopes the incident will force change.
"It's bad that it takes something like this to highlight a failure in the system," he said.
Woman died after ambulance driver ignored 999 call while on tea break
An ambulance driver in Moray decided not to respond to a 999 call because he was on a tea break while a woman had a fatal heart attack 800 yards from his base.
A probe is under way after Owen McLaughlin refused to respond to the emergency call after Mandy Mathieson took ill only two minutes from where he was. The relief technician "chose" not to go to 33-year-old Mandy Mathieson's aid not far from the depot in Tomintoul.
An ambulance crew from Grantown had to rush 15 miles to her home which took 21 minutes.
Woman died after ambulance driver ignored 999 call while on tea break
An air ambulance was also scrambled but Miss Mathieson, who suffered a blood clot, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her family is making a complaint to Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Ambulance Service.
His colleague, part-time driver Shirley Keith, has also complained about his actions and has not returned to work since the incident on October 16. She was also on duty that day but was at home in the village's Conglass Lane when Miss Mathieson's partner, Bobby Taylor, made the emergency call at 12.45pm.
The control centre in Inverness contacted Mr McLaughlin and asked him to attend. Miss Keith, 43, said: "I heard the air ambulance going over the top of my house. I noticed an ambulance at Mandy's house at the bottom of the road.
"I phoned the station. I said: 'Owen what's going on? There's an air ambulance at the bottom of my road'.
"His exact words were 'Shirley, you're not going to like what I'm about to say. They shouted me on my break but I refused to go." She added: "I was totally numb with disbelief, I just hung up the phone.
"We may not have been able to make a difference to Mandy but we were only two minutes away from her and he's got all the equipment, including a defibrillator, in the back of the ambulance.
"When Mandy really needed help he let her down. That is so wrong."
Family connection
An ironic twist to the saga is that Miss Mathieson's late grandfather, Charlie Skene, was the village's ambulance driver in the past and had successfully campaigned for a dedicated vehicle for the area.
Her sister, Michelle Fernie, 39, of Tomintoul, is also in the service, as an ambulance technician, while Miss Fernie's husband is a paramedic.
Miss Mathieson's uncle, also Charlie Skene, said: "We're disgusted that the service has come to this. We've just been so badly let down.
"You're supposed to be working to save someone's life. My father fought for years for a full time service in Tomintoul.
"The number of times we've been sitting at Christmas dinner and we'd have to get up and leave because somebody needed an ambulance, and then when we need it we're let down like this."
Miss Mathieson's family said their lives have been shattered by the loss of their "shining star".
And Miss Mathieson's partner, Bobby Taylor, 29, said he could not believe she was gone. He said: "No words can describe it. She was everything."
McLaughlin has been slated across all the papers, but it has been so badly reported and only a part story told:
Row over tea break cash is blamed after 999 tragedy
AN AMBULANCE manager has told how he is ashamed to be part of the service after a driver did not respond to a call-out to a woman who later died.
Mandy Mathieson, 33, died after suffering a heart attack just 800 yards from the ambulance station in the Speyside village of Tomintoul last month.
The station received a 999 call but the technician on duty, Owen McLauchlan, was on a rest break and did not respond to the call.
Another ambulance was sent from Grantown-on-Spey, arriving in 21 minutes, followed by an air ambulance eight minutes later, but Ms Mathieson died.
Mr McLauchlan, who was providing cover in Tomintoul while the full-time local crew - Ms Mathieson's sister and brother-in-law - were on holiday, has been suspended pending an investigation by the Health Professions Council.
The incident has outraged Ms Mathieson's family who are demanding an end to ambulance crews being allowed to opt out of responding to emergency calls during teabreaks.
It has also prompted anger from ambulance staff in the region, who have blamed a "pathetic" £250 payment offer to opt-out of rest breaks as the cause of the problem.
One ambulance manager, who asked not to be named, told The Scotsman: "It is not the first time this has happened in my division and it won't be the last. I feel ashamed to be a manager in this service."
He added: "On the face of it, the story will be presented that the member of staff was on a tea break and didn't respond. This is not the case."
He said the background to the incident can be traced to when the working week was cut from 40 hours to 37 hours. He claims many ambulance services across the UK then offered "availability payments" - some of around £1,200 a year - for staff to work during meal breaks. This is voluntary and staff have an annual opportunity to opt in or out of this.
He went on: "The SAS (Scottish Ambulance Service) offered a pathetic £250 per annum. It was the point of view of senior management staff that this was all they could afford.
"If a member of staff chose not to accept the money then they were not available during their meal breaks and were entitled to leave the station during their breaks. I know that some members of staff have chosen not to accept the availability payments because of the way they have been treated by staff."
A SAS spokesman said: "Under UK NHS pay arrangements, staff are entitled to an uninterrupted break during their shifts. In Scotland ambulance staff can waive that entitlement if they choose to do so in the interests of patient care."
Ms Mathieson's partner Bobby Taylor said he hopes the incident will force change.
"It's bad that it takes something like this to highlight a failure in the system," he said.
killsta said:
From what I've gathered when I've spoken to ambulance staff, they work much differently than you'd expect.
They are given jobs by their control room, they don't just shout up for whatever they feel like/are closest to. It's up to the control room to decide who to send. Once dispatched their satnav tells them the route to take, and they cannot deviate from that route. Same goes for the route back to the hospital.
Strange, but it is the NHS afterall.
Not true. You can go whichever way you wish (within reason!)They are given jobs by their control room, they don't just shout up for whatever they feel like/are closest to. It's up to the control room to decide who to send. Once dispatched their satnav tells them the route to take, and they cannot deviate from that route. Same goes for the route back to the hospital.
Strange, but it is the NHS afterall.
Lost_BMW said:
Chrisgr31 said:
The reality is that this issue is caused by the management of the NHS and Ambulance Trusts trying to make the service more "efficient". They are doing this by trying to make the forntline work harded rather than making themselves redundant.
The outcome is that ambulance stations are being closed, and ambulances can now work anywhere throughout huge areas leading to the reliance on GPS etc. However to hit targets which call for them to get to calls within an average of x minutes they will tend to be based in population areas as there will be more calls. So dont need an ambulance in a hurry in a rural area.
However ambulance crews now tend to be so busy that if they answered every call they wouldn't get a break so it seems to me they have to take a break, and be free from their radio and callouts. After all this guys colleague calls his behaviour disgraceful, but she didnt take the call, and why not? Because she was at home and unavailable. So she is on a break at home and doesn't get criticised for not taking the call, he is on a break but still at the station and does get criticised.
Guess the answer is for them all to take breaks away from the radio!
Or to invest properly in a well planned needs level such that if one medic/van is 'off' for a deserved or mandatory rest, others are deployed in their place = no forced gap in service/ availability. But they might lose a few execs. of course to pay for this, so optimistic I guess!The outcome is that ambulance stations are being closed, and ambulances can now work anywhere throughout huge areas leading to the reliance on GPS etc. However to hit targets which call for them to get to calls within an average of x minutes they will tend to be based in population areas as there will be more calls. So dont need an ambulance in a hurry in a rural area.
However ambulance crews now tend to be so busy that if they answered every call they wouldn't get a break so it seems to me they have to take a break, and be free from their radio and callouts. After all this guys colleague calls his behaviour disgraceful, but she didnt take the call, and why not? Because she was at home and unavailable. So she is on a break at home and doesn't get criticised for not taking the call, he is on a break but still at the station and does get criticised.
Guess the answer is for them all to take breaks away from the radio!
K77 CTR said:
Speaking first hand of this job, this thread has really got me angry. Our service allows one 30 minute meal break in 12 hours and that is it. This meal break has to come in the middle 3 hours of our shift, often due to service demand this doesn't happen. A huge majority of our service has to work over 10 hours before they get any break, forget a beak if you work in the rural stations.
We are allowed to be disturbed during our break and if we decide to attend a job we get a one of payment. I don't know of any colleague that would say no to attending an emergency. Driving on an emergency and attending a critically ill patient takes a lot of concentration, I for one would hate to cause an accident or give the wrong medication because I'm tired or hungry.
There are very few occaisions when we are just sat doing nothing, our service will not allow us to sit on base at any time other than our mealbreak. The remainder of the time we are driving to a designated standby point, restocking vehicles or on the odd occaision sat in the vehicle at the side of the road.
We probably have about 15 ambulances covering a large city, 10 large towns and a widespread rural area. We can take patients to four main hospitals covering approx 30 miles east to west and 50 miles north to south. Each one of these hospitals has a problem with holding ambulances - sometimes for over 90 mins and in a 24 hour period we probably attend approx 300-400 jobs. I have often been stuck at a patients address (or on the street) with a very ill patient awaiting an ambulance to transfer the patient for over an hour (I work on the cars).
We are expected to do any training in our own time, read and deal with emails at home, keep up to date with changes in protocols/guidelines in our own time and if you ever make a mistake or have an accident be prepared to be suspended without any support from the management.
This job is frustrating, demanding and very difficult at times, the last thing we need is the general public having a go at us, saying that we are lazy.
This is totally different to very rural crews of course (like the bloke in the story which this whole thread is about). Often they don't do a single job all day (spend all day waiting on station) and yet still sign off for 30-45 minutes in the middle of it. When they are signed off, there is no ambulance cover in that area: the nearest ambulance can be 15-20 miles away (along rural roads).We are allowed to be disturbed during our break and if we decide to attend a job we get a one of payment. I don't know of any colleague that would say no to attending an emergency. Driving on an emergency and attending a critically ill patient takes a lot of concentration, I for one would hate to cause an accident or give the wrong medication because I'm tired or hungry.
There are very few occaisions when we are just sat doing nothing, our service will not allow us to sit on base at any time other than our mealbreak. The remainder of the time we are driving to a designated standby point, restocking vehicles or on the odd occaision sat in the vehicle at the side of the road.
We probably have about 15 ambulances covering a large city, 10 large towns and a widespread rural area. We can take patients to four main hospitals covering approx 30 miles east to west and 50 miles north to south. Each one of these hospitals has a problem with holding ambulances - sometimes for over 90 mins and in a 24 hour period we probably attend approx 300-400 jobs. I have often been stuck at a patients address (or on the street) with a very ill patient awaiting an ambulance to transfer the patient for over an hour (I work on the cars).
We are expected to do any training in our own time, read and deal with emails at home, keep up to date with changes in protocols/guidelines in our own time and if you ever make a mistake or have an accident be prepared to be suspended without any support from the management.
This job is frustrating, demanding and very difficult at times, the last thing we need is the general public having a go at us, saying that we are lazy.
Edited by JumboBeef on Friday 5th November 18:36
Ruskie said:
jamieboy said:
mph1977 said:
jamieboy said:
What does an ambulance driver / paramedic do when they're on duty, but not on a 'shout'?
irrelevant to the discussion 
You're the second person to say that, and I don't see it as irrelevant at all.As an outsider, it's hard for me to understand why a paramedic's breaks have to be un-interruptible, unless I have an idea of what the work pattern is when they're not on a break. Hard to think of many things more relevant to the discussion, to be honest.
When it is quiet we get sent out on stand by as well which often means sitting in a lay by for 40 mins without facilitates or having a cup of tea waiting for next shout.
Those who work in busy areas NEED their breaks. Those who work in very rural areas do not. Those in between: difficult to say as some days can be quiet and so you have a lot of downtime and other days you can be hammered.
I have worked in very rural, suburban and city centres so can understand the problems of breaks/no breaks in different situations.
Edited by JumboBeef on Saturday 6th November 09:41
Ruskie said:
JumboBeef said:
Ruskie said:
jamieboy said:
mph1977 said:
jamieboy said:
What does an ambulance driver / paramedic do when they're on duty, but not on a 'shout'?
irrelevant to the discussion You're the second person to say that, and I don't see it as irrelevant at all.As an outsider, it's hard for me to understand why a paramedic's breaks have to be un-interruptible, unless I have an idea of what the work pattern is when they're not on a break. Hard to think of many things more relevant to the discussion, to be honest.
When it is quiet we get sent out on stand by as well which often means sitting in a lay by for 40 mins without facilitates or having a cup of tea waiting for next shout.
Those who work in busy areas NEED their breaks. Those who work in very rural areas do not. Those in between: difficult to say as some days can be quiet and so you have a lot of downtime and other days you can be hammered.
I have worked in very rural, suburban and city centres so can understand the problems of breaks/no breaks in different situations.
Edited by JumboBeef on Saturday 6th November 09:41
JensenA said:
Having read through this post, I can't believe that there are people in the Ambulance service arguing that having a cup of tea is more important than saving someones life. FFS, your'e in a job where one of your main duties is to respond to a 999 call, if you are the only person available, and you decide not to go because you are on your tea break, then that is inexcusable - no further discussion needed, if you don;t like it, resign and get another job where you can have a nice uninterrupted tea break at 11 o'clock without the inconvenience of having to rush out to try and save some ones life.
How about a surgeon? If he worked straight through his 12 hour+ shift without a break, he could squeeze another op in there, thus saving another life. Or maybe RNLI? Don't bring them back in, just keep them permanently out there at sea, ready to go? Drs and nurses also don't need breaks, think of how much extra patient care there could be if they worked non-stop. Midwives, A&E staff, trauma teams, even vets: none of them should ever have a break because what happens to whoever needs them when they do?Get the picture?
Also, consider this. Your employer employs you for 40 hours per week. He pays you for your meal break time, and in return you stay in the office, and are happy to leave/bin whatever you are eating at any time during your break if the phone rings and you get a job (which could last hours).
Then your employer reduces your working week to 37.5 hours, which means your meal breaks are now NOT paid. In return, he offers you £250 pa (about £1 per working day) to stay in your office, unable to leave. Even going to the toilet has to be a quick job.
So then the phone rings. If you have turned down your £1/day and don't go out, you risk begin nailed to a cross like this poor sod. If you do go, you will be paid the princely sum of £5 for up to 45 minutes extra work (overtime) and for the loss of your 'downtime', break, food, cup of tea and leisurely toilet break: you might not see your break again that day.
Regardless of what your job is, would you do it? No? When why should ambulance staff?
Ruskie said:
JensenA said:
Having read through this post, I can't believe that there are people in the Ambulance service arguing that having a cup of tea is more important than saving someones life. FFS, your'e in a job where one of your main duties is to respond to a 999 call, if you are the only person available, and you decide not to go because you are on your tea break, then that is inexcusable - no further discussion needed, if you don;t like it, resign and get another job where you can have a nice uninterrupted tea break at 11 o'clock without the inconvenience of having to rush out to try and save some ones life.
No one has said that. We are entitled to breaks. Morally it is a different story. Me personally I would never have protected meal breaks as IMO it's morally wrong however other people think different.You have no idea if what it's like to work front line which is evident in the tone of your post. These threads always have armchair experts giving ill thought out opinions on things they have no experience of.
Edit: search 'meal breaks', and you get this: "You are required to work [insert]* hours per week, on average, excluding meal breaks. [Note: The standard hours of work for full time staff shall be 37.5 hours per week excluding meal breaks]."
Edited by JumboBeef on Saturday 6th November 12:27
ninja-lewis said:
JumboBeef said:
Not so often in The Highlands and Islands, which this story is all about. Yes, it can be a very long drive to the hospital but most (nearly all) days you have plenty of time to sit around on station outside of your meal break.
Is the area in question typical of the Highlands and Islands though? It is a popular tourist area with plenty of outdoor sports and thewhisky trail. The A9 isn't far away either. Potentially one of the busier rural areas I would have thought.No, it would be quiet up there. Half a dozen jobs a week I would have thought.
maddog993 said:
JumboBeef said:
ninja-lewis said:
JumboBeef said:
Not so often in The Highlands and Islands, which this story is all about. Yes, it can be a very long drive to the hospital but most (nearly all) days you have plenty of time to sit around on station outside of your meal break.
Is the area in question typical of the Highlands and Islands though? It is a popular tourist area with plenty of outdoor sports and thewhisky trail. The A9 isn't far away either. Potentially one of the busier rural areas I would have thought.No, it would be quiet up there. Half a dozen jobs a week I would have thought.
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1996...
"When a vacancy occurs we take the opportunity to review the skills mix, clinical case load and the external environment, to ensure that we have flexibility to meet patient need. This is currently under way with regard to the position in Tomintoul, with a view to recruiting a replacement in the coming weeks.”
Would you really want to work 7 days on, 7 days off?
maddog993 said:
;) Nah, I was only joking about the vacancies, mind you, I did used to work 7 on, 7 off (and be on Standby on the night during the 7 on) & the week off was nice....... but I certainly wouldn't contemplate go back to it now
We have Urgent Tier ambulances just for this job. They are like PTS ambulances but with blues/twos and at least one Technician on board, so they can transfer emergency p/ts (and respond to 999 if required). Because of this, I very rarely get tied up with transfers and 99% of my work load are 999 calls.Chrisgr31 said:
The other issue that no one has covered yet is that with changes to hospital services ambulances are having to move more people further. So when the new hpspital at Pembury comes on stream ladies im Maidstine and that area who need urgent obstetrics will need an ambulance from Maidstone to Pembury, whereas currently they can go to Maidstone.
The outcome of changes like this at all hospitals is that the ambukances are going further, but of course the number of them is not being increased. In many areas its also made worse by the ambulance being region based so of course at the end of shift it can be a long way from its base and hence need a long drive home.
That is a very good point - the DMAs (double manned ambulances) around here are often tied up- nearly for a whole 12 hour shift on some occasions- with the conveyor belt of 3+hour 'emergency' transfers from the local hospital (that is being progessively wound down) to another with the requisite facilities. This creates a void of ambulance cover for the area with the net result crews are dragged in from elsewhere compounding the shortage of regional cover, (It also pisses all over the terms under which the Ambulance Trust contract with these hospitals were originally negotiated.) The outcome of changes like this at all hospitals is that the ambukances are going further, but of course the number of them is not being increased. In many areas its also made worse by the ambulance being region based so of course at the end of shift it can be a long way from its base and hence need a long drive home.
Edited by JumboBeef on Sunday 7th November 11:16
BrassMan said:
Johnnytheboy said:
I certainly wouldn't sit drinking tea & let people die over a pay rise.
That depends on the call they received. If it was something like:Caller said:
She's in her early 30s, has chest pains and feels rough.
then she will have been an extremely low priority. He could have said that he was part way through his tea and the controller will have gone on to someone else. The way a lot of posters have been reacting you'd think that he stepped over someone bleeding to death to get an extra doughnut.paper said:
Her partner, Bobby Taylor, 29, spent nearly half an hour trying to resuscitate her when he found her not breathing at their home in Stewart Place, Tomintoul, on October 16.
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1994419She was (also certainly) dead when she was found. If would not have made any difference if he had attended or not: however the Technician would have been told 'cardiac arrest' and that the p/t was not breathing and non-responsive, the top level of job possible.
'Rest break' death ambulance technician keeps job
An ambulance technician who chose not to respond to what proved to be a fatal heart attack when he was on a tea break has been told he can keep his job.
The technician was 800 yards away when 33-year-old Mandy Mathieson had a cardiac arrest in Tomintoul, Moray.
However, the call was instead answered by paramedics based 15 miles away in Grantown-on-Spey.
The technician has been ordered to undergo training. Ms Mathieson's uncle said: "They can't teach compassion."
The technician was suspended while an investigation was carried out.
The 999 call had been received at about midday on 16 October.
An air ambulance helicopter was also dispatched and reached the village almost 30 minutes after the call.
However, Ms Mathieson was declared dead at the scene.
'Abiding by rules'
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said it had completed its investigation.
He said: "The ambulance technician involved will undertake further training and pass an evaluation before being allowed to return to operational duties.
"The chairman and chief executive will meet with the community in Tomintoul on 28 January."
Ms Mathieson's uncle, Charlie Skene, 52, said the family was not surprised by the ambulance service decision, although it was disappointed.
He said: "He was only abiding by their rules but what are they going to teach him?
"Surely they can't teach compassion, so what are they going to give him lessons in?
"That they are employing him shows you a lot about the people at the top. They're happy having that kind of people working for them."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-o...
He was NOT on a 'tea break', he was OFF DUTY!
An ambulance technician who chose not to respond to what proved to be a fatal heart attack when he was on a tea break has been told he can keep his job.
The technician was 800 yards away when 33-year-old Mandy Mathieson had a cardiac arrest in Tomintoul, Moray.
However, the call was instead answered by paramedics based 15 miles away in Grantown-on-Spey.
The technician has been ordered to undergo training. Ms Mathieson's uncle said: "They can't teach compassion."
The technician was suspended while an investigation was carried out.
The 999 call had been received at about midday on 16 October.
An air ambulance helicopter was also dispatched and reached the village almost 30 minutes after the call.
However, Ms Mathieson was declared dead at the scene.
'Abiding by rules'
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said it had completed its investigation.
He said: "The ambulance technician involved will undertake further training and pass an evaluation before being allowed to return to operational duties.
"The chairman and chief executive will meet with the community in Tomintoul on 28 January."
Ms Mathieson's uncle, Charlie Skene, 52, said the family was not surprised by the ambulance service decision, although it was disappointed.
He said: "He was only abiding by their rules but what are they going to teach him?
"Surely they can't teach compassion, so what are they going to give him lessons in?
"That they are employing him shows you a lot about the people at the top. They're happy having that kind of people working for them."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-o...
He was NOT on a 'tea break', he was OFF DUTY!
maddog993 said:
I'm confused Jaf ; how come the guy was referred to the HPC when he was a Techie? He wouldn't be registered with them and as such they have f
k-all jurisdiction - the Trust might just as well have referred the case to the GMC or even Fifa for all the gravitas their 'judgement' would carry.
All new Techs are Foundation Paramedics. k-all jurisdiction - the Trust might just as well have referred the case to the GMC or even Fifa for all the gravitas their 'judgement' would carry.http://www.scottishambulance.com/UserFiles/file/Wo...
Although he was only at Tech level, he was also on Year One of a Two Year Para course. The HPC were informed because they would be meeting him one day when (if!) he completes Year Two.
jaf01uk said:
EMDC had called and switched him off and as he was unavailable (as were the rest of the staff in that station at the time of the call) they should NOT have contacted him
Your post is spot on, apart from one thing. The Tech was unavailable but the aux driver (the one who ratted to the media) was not (and she was at home too)! Control were trying to get in touch with her (to those who do not know, everyone on the road in the Ambulance Service have had basic CPR training).Edited by JumboBeef on Monday 10th January 13:29
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