...has been paying attention to what the workforce on the frontline has been saying for ages. You never know, we may actually have been right!
I know, it's not all as straightforward and simple as we'd like, but there has to be talk about the system. It isn't some sort of sacred cow that can't be criticised, and should be open to debate, investigation, and change.
Here's hoping.
2 comments:
What? Us? Frontline ambo staff? Right? Ben, go and wash your mouth out!!! :)
I really hope something changes but there's a large part of me that knows it'll have to get a lot worse before it starts to get better. Poop!
I was reading another recent story on that page (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8414719.stm)...
How many times have have we (staff who work on an FRU) said "I was waiting 40mins/an hour/an hour & a half/etc for a crew with a really sick patient."
There are so many statements in that article that I've heard crews saying to each other on a daily basis...
Having already phoned to request an ambulance to take (the patient) to hospital, the paramedic radioed again. He got the response that there wasn't one coming, it had not been dispatched."
"The paramedic did all he could for my dad but the response times he got after the paramedic arrived just let my dad down," she said.
"You look at my dad's case, and you look at it on paper, the paramedic arrival target was met so......probably all the boxes would have been ticked apart from the end box where my dad died."
"If they get there in seven minutes and the patient dies they've succeeded, if they get there in nine and the patient lives, they have failed because they haven't reached their target," she said.
This type of incident is starting to become an everyday occurance rather than a 'once in a blue moon' thing.
I don't know what the answer is but I just hope that someone who gets paid a lot more than me, up there in The Gods, knows what it is and does something sensible about it.
I just hope that those who make the decisions regarding resources etc start to listen to us on the frontline. Paramedics have a registration to uphold and a duty of care to our patients. I too have waited unreasonable amounts of time for ambulances. Thankfully, my patients were not critical. There will come a time when, due to insufficient resources, deaths will be common place. Will it have to come to this before we are listened to? To hit targets is not the reason I joined the job. To care for and treat people was.
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