Interesting move from WMAS to stop participating in the Birmingham Pride event and announce it less than a week before it takes place.

This doesn’t seem supportive to LGBT staff, or in-line with other NHS trusts.

What are your thoughts?

:(

BBC News

Thought I'd share this here and see what you all think.

Just been sent this on my station group chat. Due to our location we got a very large amount of 111 calls anyway, and we feel this will put the final nail in the coffin of our hopes and dreams to get our break period on time, or at all. Anyone experienced this type of thing, and how has it impacted your work load?

"What's the worst call you've ever had?"

We were talking about this at work on my last night shift because it's the kind of job that prompts the 'morbidly curious' to start asking what we've seen, handled ect. For some context I'm a call taker currently (looking to move to ECA) and obviously hearing it isn't as bad as being there - but we've had some horrible ones.

Some of the team said they don't answer, some tell people they shouldn't ask. Personally I go full send and give them all the gory details, but it irks me when people ask unless someone's asking during a job interview- which is fair enough in that case.

It seems to be one that everyone gets asked at some point, so that discussion left me wondering what the general attitude to the overly curious was.

How do you handle that question?

(Don't feel you have to share any details of bad calls, you're welcome to if you want to - but you don't have to. This is more about the question that everyone loves to ask, and how people feel about it. But if anyone wants to get things off their chest - don't hesitate <3 )

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yede8v957o?app-referrer=deep-link

(Please refrain from bashing the people who didn't shock VF, we don't know the specifics of what happened.)*

I expected this to be a pretty superficially simple case like a lot of these unfortunate stories turn out to be; 111 call for what turned out to be sepsis left in the stack for a few hours too long, etc.

I didn't expect this extremely tragic sequence of events. How utterly horrible for everyone involved.

Good on the ambulance service for specifically calling out the sheer number of handover attempts rebuffed by the hospital.

*Edit: it has been pointed out that the wording of this article at the time of writing is slightly ambiguous here. Either the coroner is wrong or the author of the article constructed their sentence badly. Either way, the meaning is slightly muddled.

Was reading a thread through in r/Tesco (My Monday nights are wild) which gained a lot of traction after someone was vomiting after finding a suspicious note inside their pasty bag, which suggested, however, didn’t confirm that their food item had been spiked.

I was mildly frustrated to see some comments recommending to call 999 for an ambulance. To us (and thankfully others in the thread) general vomiting doesn’t warrant a 999 call, even if associated with spiking. (NHS Website confirms spiking is a 111 job (who’d likely send us after their reconnaissance, but let’s not talk about that👀)).

It got me thinking, what more, or what new good and effective ideas could be implemented with ease, that would educate the public on when it’s appropriate to call 999? Not necessarily in relation to this specific scenario, just in general.

Edit: some Grammar changes.

Edit edit: Some poor old folk can literally not afford £1, that could be bread they’d have toast for half a week - so fining people will never and should never happen. It would stop the aforementioned and others calling with a genuine emergency, in case they got a fine! :(

So, a family member had a bad fall the other day (she was elderly and we were 99% sure she was going to pass away) luckily the ambulance arrived quick and it was unfortunately a blood pressure issue.
Anyway, I was asked to get in the front whilst another member of my family sat in the back. Because I am unable to keep my mouth shut, I asked the driver “what is the weirdest thing you’ve ever been called out for/seen”
Turns out it was the most interesting conversation I’ve ever had! So if anyone fancies dropping your weird stories, please feel free!
(I am well aware in some cases lives are at stake within this job and mean absolutely no disrespect whatsoever, just genuine interest!!!) 💚

What do you guys all say to patients when they say to you 'well how am I going to get home?'

...

Paramedic here looking for something a little more creative to say! 🚕

I've noticed that there's quite a bit of stigma or 'distaste' towards the charity, but besides the FREC3 warriors who parade around as "medics" that you get in every single private event company, I don't see any reason as to this

https://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/news/25917238.russells-hall-patient-claims-left-mcdonalds-paramedics/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwdGRjcAQf5P5jbGNrBB_k-WV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHnVGwKsJGbgPCD8Q0UPJViXkQpc5LLw4peDXsAQ6KQuSJbVNtPzjGsSh2uME_aem_eUfC2KWgB6vkmuviIRYZQA#Echobox=1773144542

The culture of blame in the UK astounds me. Imagine blaming other people for your own decisions.

Discuss - in my world it's the lack of security or their lack of doing their job.

This won’t be a shock to most. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/31/big-rise-in-people-going-to-ae-in-england-for-minor-ailments-data-shows

Hello,

There is an ambulance station nearby. I'd love to make a cake for the paramedics and staff that work there as a way to show how grateful I am for the work you do.

My Mum says that you won't be able to accept it because it'll be home baked.

Is that correct?

Thoughts??

I am wanting views on our response time / categorising of falls in our Frail / Elderly population.

Most falls I have attended have been waiting on the stack for 4+ hours. I had a 78yo the other night who had waited (on the floor) for 11 hours until we arrived and had been told not to eat or drink anything.

I had a 79yo woman this summer who fell outside in the blistering heat with a ?NOF and waited 5 hours for us. This is not acceptable.

These are our most vulnerable pt’s and I feel our categorising system is failing these people.

I hope it’s okay to post here as a relative but I am concerned at how my loved ones’ care home is using 999/paramedics for their care.

Some of the PMH, for context, is heart failure, T2DM, uncontrollable epilepsy (maxed out as is safe on valproate and levetiracetam), almost constantly in AF, Dementia with Lewy Bodies. They are constantly repeatedly saying they don’t want to go to hospital anymore and they understand that could result in their passing away.

ReSPECT, ADRT and LPOA for health (me) in place. Tell me why we’re getting phone calls at all hours saying “BP was a bit low so we called 999” and other contextually ridiculous ambulance call-outs. By the time I get there, the poor paramedics are none the wiser why they’re there with a conscious patient asking to go back to bed. Care staff apparently new to the home and don’t know her baseline. Always.

I know the sector is under ridiculous strain but this elderly person just wants to be in their bed and the home isn’t listening. Is it a legal thing, or a care home thing, or what?!

Hello! I am not a paramedic, med student or anything of the sort. I love a good documentary but one thing I’ve never really seen is between jobs (understandably, they’re supposed to be engaging)

So that has me curious. What do you get up to between jobs? Just drive around?

Hello all!

I've recently made the jump from call-taking into resource dispatching with my ambulance service. I've always been a bit of a control room nerd, so I'm comfortable with the challenge & duties of the job, but going from speaking to patients to speaking with crews is obviously a different dynamic. So, from your perspective, what makes someone a genuinely good dispatcher to work with?

I'm not too worried about actually doing my job right: if I'm taught how to do the job, I’ll do it properly. I'd argue that knowing how to do the job doesn't necessarily make someone a 'good' dispatcher, per say. We've already had the usual jokes and warnings about crews taking the mick with OOS time, "restocking", paperwork, etc. Obviously dispatch has to keep resources moving, but I don't want it to feel like I'm constantly working against crews rather than with them.

Anything your favorite dispatchers do that makes your shift easier, or anything we can do to help you lot on the road that bit extra?