Producer interest at work.
If someone's having a heart attack, you'd go into a building to help 'em. Wouldn't you? Especially if you were a paramedic, and that was your job? But according to Reynolds at Random Acts of Reality, standing around for 16 minutes conducting a risk assessment exercise is perfectly OK, because the paramedic was... wait for it... on his own. Solo paramedics are an innovation that the Labour government assured us would cost no lives. Well Ben Bradshaw should have one man's death on his conscience. Another petty new Labour lie.
On Tuesday, I had a drink with a teacher, who resolutely defended the state education system, and took any criticism of it almost as a personal slight. The thesis was that state education is getting better, and exams aren't getting easier, and my opinion that it isn't and they are was not worth spit, because I am not of the profession. A trait I notice across much of the public sector. Just as many doctors and nurses see criticism of the bloody NHS as criticism of them personally, true to form, Reynolds, a paramedic plays the men, not the ball, and has a go at the ignoramuses of the 'My Sun' sandpit
what really sticks in my throat is the comments by the Great British Public who take the rubbish that is printed in the Sun as gospel. When every story becomes a trial by media it's interesting how quickly people are to judge something based on 380 words that they have read in a tabloid paper.but I'm afraid I am tempted to agree with them. In this case though "hitlerite" is probably a bit strong, someone died because of another's failure to do his job adequately, and 'heath and saftey is the given reason'. There are laws against such incompetence, and perhaps this paramedic should see the inside of a gaol cell "pour encourager les autres". After all, I can suffer unlimited fines and seven years in gaol for failure to fill forms in correctly. Why shouldn't a paramedic risk gaol if excessive "risk assessment" costs a man his life?
this idiot should be given life in prison
This medic should be struck off straight away, no questions ...
Typical Britain today,what a b****y disgrace, everything is Health and Safety, Hitlerite jobsworths ...
These people want us to risk our lives to save them when they make comments like that? What next? Moaning because I have two perfectly good kidneys and I should give one of them up for transplant so that someone else can live? Offering to be stabbed in place of someone else because we 'save lives' and are 'paid for it'?
Yes. Coppers do a difficult job, so do nurses, paramedics and teachers. But none put themselves at risk like fishermen or construction workers, who are not routinely lauded for their bravery and selflessness. In this case, the paramedic is guilty of unprofessionalism and yes, cowardice. But we lay people who merely pay for these brave and selfless people to do their thing are not, according to my friend and Reynolds allowed an opinion on someone's actions because we don't know what we're talking about. I cannot possibly have an opinion on education policy because I am not a teacher. Reynolds says I'm not allowed to criticise a cowardly paramedic, scared of his own shadow, because I've never driven an ambulance. Yet I have to put up with ignoramuses lecturing me on how "bonuses caused the financial crisis" on the evening news every night.
No wonder the bureaucracy becomes captured by producer interest, and public services in this country are shit - we give the people paid out of taxation too soft a ride, constantly massaging their obviously delicate egos by telling them, over and over, what wonderful selfless people they are. The sooner these professions are accountable to people who aren't going to be knee-jerk apologists for their union buddies, the better.
And if you're asking, yes. I would have done it differently. I WOULD have gone in.
5 immoderate opinions:
Just a minor correction, as I know the case.
The paramedic did not carryout a risk assessment because he was on his own, but because the front door was open and he feared there might be a burglary in process.
An equally stupid excuse of course.
The morale of the story is, if you need an ambulance, don't leave the front door open to help them get in quicker - I think
If the quoted report is correct Mr Adams was instructed to leave the door open to allow the paramedics entry in case, by the time they arrived, he was no longer able to open the door. I can't believe that such advice is either unprecedented or that the paramedic in question was ignorant that such advice is, I assume, (more or less) routinely given.
The moral of the story is that the jobsworth who waited 16 minutes before creeping into the house should be named and then thrown out on his ear for the snivelling piece of shit that he apparently is. Being employed to do a worthwhile, generally admired but, occasionally, dangerous and unpleasant job - and paramedics, policemen and firemen volunteer to do such jobs - does not give you a justification for not doing that job when you can find a convenient excuse: in fact the opposite is true - you do the job despite the risks. Effectively - if the report is accurate - the paramedic in question was complicit in the possibly preventable death of Mr Adams. The inquest - if one takes place - should be interesting.
Tell you what, and this is speaking as a trained military medic, I certainly wouldn't want to be a paramedic dealing with a coronary, on my own. First off, there's just too much to do in terms of assessing the patient's condition and getting him/her stabilised so that the patient can be taken to hospital.
This, as Tom Reynolds regulalrly points out, is just the unintended consequence of the government's obsession with targets and response times - just so it looks good on paper and in the papers. Fuck that, if I have a heart attack at home, I want to be assured that I will be treated by someone who knows what they are doing rather than some jobsworth worrying about time taken to reach the address and whether it is safe to enter.
I fear that the impending spending cuts will mean that fewer paramedics will be adequately trained and they will be asked to operate solo more frequently.
"This, as Tom Reynolds regulalrly points out, is just the unintended consequence of the government's obsession with targets and response times..."
Indeed. So if they throw the paramedic out on his ear (they won't) they ought to also throw out the box ticking manager that came up with the idea (they won't do that either)...
I certainly wouldn't want to be a paramedic dealing with a coronary, on my own.
Second that.
The increase in solo FRUs was a goddamn stupid idea. As was pointed out by many...
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