What a sad time. Due to various reasons listed on his blog, Mark's had to shut his blog down. He of 999medic and Chronicles of EMS, a voice of courage and conviction, has decided that he has to put his job and his family first. Understandable it may be, but the reasons behind it are worrying.
Read his final blogpost, along with all the comments below. They pay tribute much better than I could to his ability and vision to make the world of EMS what it has the strong potential to be.
And for the meantime, this blog remains anonymous (although possibly one of the world's worst kept secrets), for exactly the reasons that Mark has had to walk away.
It's a sad indictment of the lack of vision of others that holds us back, as a service, as EMS providers, and especially as bloggers. It's all the more upsetting that one of the trailblazers in the field, is the one to get caught up in the fear. A fear of the unknown shouldn't mean instant disapproval. It should be a challenge to those who hold on to that fear to come and face it. Come and see that those who blog do so, at least in the vast majority, because they love their jobs. Because they want to cast it in a better light. Because they want to improve both themselves and their environment.
Hopefully, some day, the vision will overpower the fear, and not, like today, the other way round.
2 comments:
As I said on Mark's blog comments - I am saddened at the culture of fear I perceive in the NHS today. I don't know for definite so this is just an (educated) guess but I suspect it is part of the management culture that has been introduced and has had such a pernicious effect on front-line staffing levels: if you spend money on clip-board holders there's less to spend on the person who rolls up their sleeves and gets stuck into the work.
Scarborough is the latest horror story in the making - and they want to pretty the building up. More clinical staff would be a better way to spend the money and then, maybe, it wouldn't be such a risk to end up there as a patient.
I'm going to start going anonymous for a bit too!
Received the latest Journal of Paramedic Practice today. In it, an article BY 999Medic himself about paramedic blogging. Not had chance to fully read it yet although the article states that Mark will be writing each month in the JPP about blogging etc.
Will be interesting to read his article next month....
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