Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Paramedic'.

More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • Patient Safety Learning news archive
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End

Group

First name

Last name

Country

Join a private group (if appropriate)

About me

Organisation

Role

Found 71 results
  1. News Article
    Paramedics are being told to take a police escort to more than 1,200 addresses for fear of attack, The Times has revealed. The College of Paramedics said the figure was outrageous and called on courts to implement tougher sentences for assaults on paramedics. Ambulance services have marked hundreds of addresses after violence towards crew. Notes on addresses include “patient keeps axe under pillow — serrated knife hidden round the house and is known to be a risk”, “shoots/throws acid”, and “patient is anti-ambulance”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 4 June 2023
  2. Event
    until
    This virtual workshop will provide paramedics with background theory and hands-on practice in incident analysis using Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and in proactive risk assessment using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). Register
  3. Event
    until
    This virtual workshop will provide paramedics with background theory and hands-on practice in incident analysis using Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and in proactive risk assessment using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). Register
  4. News Article
    The London Ambulance Service (LAS) failing on diversity and must implement specific targets for improvements, its leadership has been warned. According to LAS data, just 20% of the workforce is from a Black, Asian or from a minority ethnic background despite almost half of the capital’s population (46.2%) being made up of non-white communities. Of that 20%, 40.9% are in the lowest paid roles, compared to 15.9% who are in the highest wage bands, according to the LAS’ Integrated Performance report. The LAS is in the process of developing a new strategy to help attract more diverse staff, which will be published early next year. Research shows that ethnic minority groups suffer disproportionately higher levels of inadequate ambulance care due to a combination of issues such as a lack of cultural awareness among professionals, language and communication difficulties and a limited understanding of how the healthcare system operates for some minority groups. Read full story Source: The Independent, 21 February 2023
  5. News Article
    Emergency patients are being left open to abuse when they are at their most vulnerable because of a lack of vetting of ambulance workers, watchdog officials have warned. One watchdog official warned that abusers would even seek out work as a paramedic because it provided an “attractive environment” for exploitation. Figures show that dozens of ambulance workers have faced action over sexual assault in the past two years, while paramedics account for one in three cases of tribunal action against care professionals. But one survivors’ group warned the figures were just the “tip of the iceberg”. Paramedics who have been struck off in the past two years include one who performed a sex act in front of a patient, while another was handed a suspended prison sentence for possessing thousands of images of child pornography. Helen Vine, special adviser to the Care Quality Commission, told a recent webinar: “There is a small proportion of the population who are seeking to abuse our patients and the ambulance can be an attractive environment for that type of individual. One of the reasons for this is the ambulance sector is predominantly lone working … and ambulance services offer privileged often unsupervised access to patients who can be very vulnerable". She said the lack of checks meant offenders were able to move between providers, adding: “They test the waters and their behaviours ... if they are challenged, they will move on, however, if they are not challenged then they can hide in plain sight, and they are wearing a trusted uniform and given responsible access to that patient group. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 February 2023
  6. News Article
    Some ambulance trusts are not sending paramedics to up to around a quarter of their most serious calls, according to figures obtained by HSJ. HSJ submitted data requests to all 10 English ambulance trusts after the Care Quality Commission raised concerns about the proportion of category one calls not being attended by a paramedic at South Central Ambulance Service Foundation Trust. The regulator said in a report published in August last year that between November 2021 and April 2022 around 9% of the trust’s category one calls were not attended by a paramedic. Inspectors said this meant some patients “did not receive care or treatment that met their needs because there were not appropriately qualified staff making the decisions and providing treatment.” But data obtained via freedom of information requests reveals other ambulance trusts had far lower proportions of category one calls attended by paramedics than the South Central service last year. Read full story Source: HSJ, 2 February 2023
  7. News Article
    Ambulance crews say they are treating a growing number of patients who are falling ill because they are unable to afford to heat their homes. The soaring cost of gas and electricity has forced many people to switch off their heating in the winter months. Scottish Ambulance Service crews say they are seeing people who are unwell because their homes are so cold or they cannot afford to eat properly. Charities have warned many people are dealing with a "toxic cocktail" of increasing energy bills, growing inflation and higher interest rates this winter. Glasgow ambulance workers Tanya Hoffman and Will Green say that most weeks they see patients who are facing the stark choice between eating and heating. They have been in homes which feel ice cold, where the patients are clearly struggling to cope. "It is sad to see people are living like that," said Tanya. "There's been quite a few patients I have been out to who can't afford to buy food. They have to choose one or other, heating or food. "So they'll sit quietly at home and it's usually a relative or a friend who will phone for them as they don't want to bother anybody. "They're sitting there [and] you can't get a temperature off them because they're so cold. "So you take them into hospital because they are not managing. You know if you leave that person at home they are probably going to die through the fact they are so cold." Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 January 2023
  8. Content Article
    It was 21:15. We were due to finish shift at 22:00 and station was a 45 minute drive away. A night crew were offering to take over from us as they had just offloaded their patient to the emergency department (ED). We didn't want to hand her over to another crew. She had waited 44 hours for an ambulance and we were currently her 3rd crew in a 16 hour wait outside ED. We thanked them kindly for their offer but said we would stick it out. This lady and her daughter had been through enough, there was no need for more disruption. Besides, we had been told we were definitely the next in. We were. It just took a little time. Everyone was doing their best, but if there's no beds, there's no beds. This was my situation on Monday evening. I ended up finishing my shift at 23:30, an hour and a half late. In reality, that's not too bad. The evening before I had finished 3 hours late, making my shift 15 hours long. Add that to a 40-minute commute each way to station and you can see why I don't have time to fit much else in on work days. My poor dog is beginning to think he lives with my neighbour. He actually goes to their gate first when I do manage to take him out for a walk. I'm an emergency medical technician (EMT). I work in a fairly rural part ofthe UK. Working here is different to working in a city. We have long travel times to hospital and some properties we go to have very difficult access. On a 'normal' shift, things can be challenging. Currently the term challenging doesn't really cut it. When I finally left the hospital on my shift on Sunday, I had just handed my patient over to her 4th ambulance crew of the day. All day I had been listening to shouts coming across the radio for crew availability for red calls (the most serious) but we were all stuck. Stuck in what has become known as the ED ambulance car park. We have become a series of triage rooms where doctors and nurses come out to us to assess patients, to take their blood, to give us forms to take the patients to x-ray or CT to then bring them back onto the ambulance. We have become good at making patients cups of tea, seeking out sandwiches and biscuits, trying to come up with ingenious ways of making patients comfortable on hard, narrow stretchers. We are doing long-term care, not emergency medicine. I'm not trained for this. Trying to use bed pans when patients need to go to the toilet but are unable to mobilise, checking for pressure sores, regularly taking observations and monitoring any deterioration and ensuring this is passed on to the staff inside. We need to keep patients, and sometimes family members, calm, entertained, comfortable. It's draining. And all the while there are other people in need of an ambulance and we can't go to them. It's the same inside the hospital. Nurses are at the end of their tether. They're on their feet all day, not getting breaks, trying to manage too many patients, trying to find beds on wards to move patients out of the ED. Then the nurses in wards are trying to find safe ways to discharge patients that no longer need hospital care but are not able to go home and be independent. It's no wonder staff look drained and exhausted. It's no wonder we are all snapping at each other. The system is broken. I am relatively new to the service and hope to start my three years of paramedic training next year. I love my job but it's impossible not to get frustrated and demoralised right now. We are not doing what we are trained to do and are unable to provide the service that we are supposed to provide. It's oftentimes heart-breaking. So what is the solution? I am asked this question by so many people - patients, patients' relatives, my friends and family. I don't know. There isn't an easy answer. The ambulance service is short staffed - people are leaving the job because they just can't take this situation anymore and we are struggling to recruit people, especially in rural areas. Hospitals are short staffed for the same reason. Nurses are leaving in droves and recruitment is low. Of course, making the job more attractive by increasing wages would help, and making training more affordable - university degrees aren't cheap and trying to work alongside a full-time nursing or paramedic degree is tough! Perhaps providing grants for people to gain their C1 driving licence - this is a requirement for anyone wanting to join the ambulance service and is a massive outlay for people which I'm sure puts a lot of people off applying in the first place. Then there's the issues within the hospital. There are no beds. Why is this? Well, up to 50% of patients on wards do not actually need to be in hospital from a clinical point of view. Unfortunately though, they are also not able to go home without some sort of care package in place. This is where the problem lies. Social care. There isn't any. Again, this is down to massive staff shortages. How do we make social care an attractive job prospect for people? It's long unsociable hours (like nursing and ambulance shifts), it's difficult, it's poorly paid, it involves dealing with patients' personal care, something many are put off by. I'm not sure what the answer is here either, but something needs to happen to make this an attractive career option. Reference [1] Emergency medical technician, healthcareers.nhs.uk, (accessed 20/12/2022) https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/ambulance-service-team/roles-ambulance-service/emergency-medical-technician Are you a patient or staff with a story from the frontline to tell? Do you have insights to share to that will help raise awareness of wider patient safety issues? You can get in touch with us at content@PSLhub.org. If you'd like to comment below this blog, you'll need to sign up here first (for free!).
  9. News Article
    Paramedics describe a health service in crisis with a lack of investment and increasing demand, of lengthy waits to transfer patients to hospitals and of a social care system facing collapse. So what does a typical ambulance shift look like? The area covered by the East of England Ambulance Service's nearly 400 front-line ambulances is vast. In 2020-21, the service received nearly 1.2 million 999 calls. Ed Wisken has been a paramedic for 13 years. An advanced paramedic specialising in urgent care, Mr Wisken says: "It is really sad to see patients who have had to wait such a long time for an ambulance - but this is just the culmination of years of underfunding and of reduced resources peaking now where demand outstrips supply." "It is upsetting to see it," he says. "It is not nice to see people who have been waiting hours and hours for an ambulance - but we have really hit crisis point now." He says the morale of fellow paramedics and other healthcare workers is currently very low. "The key is you just have to do just one job at a time and just take the patients that you see and do the best for them," he says. "If you worry about the bigger picture too much you will get frustrated and angry - but that's not going to be beneficial for yourself or your patients." Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 November 2022
  10. News Article
    Directors of a major hospital have ordered their accident and emergency staff to continue receiving ambulance patients into their department “in all instances”, following angry exchanges with paramedics. Hospital staff and ambulance crews have clashed at the new Royal Liverpool Hospital since its opening last month, after ambulance crews were prevented from bringing patients inside accident and emergency department when it was deemed to be full to capacity. The problems were escalated to hospital directors and North West Ambulance Service Trust earlier this month, resulting in new instructions being issued to the emergency department. In a letter to managers in A&E and the other divisions, seen by HSJ, the three most senior directors at the Royal Liverpool, wrote: “As you are aware we are currently experiencing long delays in accepting handover of patients from ambulance crews. “This phenomenon is not unique to us at the Royal Liverpool, nor is it particularly new, but our recent challenges have undoubtedly been exacerbated due to teams still familiarising themselves with working in a new environment and the patient flow challenges we have been experiencing on site. “However, what has changed has been the extent to which we have managed these pressures by continuing to hold patients in the back of ambulances, which we collectively agree is an unacceptable situation. Whilst providing corridor care is not what any of us would aspire to, we have to recognise and respond to the risk of patients awaiting response in the community. “We have therefore today met with NWAS colleagues and agreed that, with immediate effect, we will, in all instances, continue to receive crews from NWAS into the hospital building.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 November 2022
  11. News Article
    An audit conducted by an acute trust has found more than half the patients taken to one of its hospitals by ambulance were deemed “inappropriate for conveyance”. The assessment at Scarborough Hospital in Yorkshire, obtained by HSJ through a freedom of information request, examined a random sample of 100 patients, of which around 50 arrived by ambulance. Of those arriving by ambulance, half were deemed not to have required an ambulance conveyance. The Missed Opportunities Audit, which the trust said was “routine” and looked at a range of areas where the emergency department could streamline operations, said: “Fifty-two per cent of conveyance[s] by ambulances were deemed as inappropriate". “The reviewer did not have access to the policies of Yorkshire Ambulance Service, which may account for the low number of appropriate conveyances. However, based on clinical judgment for cases presenting by ambulance the arrivals should have presented either to a community service (33%) or via their own transportation methods (38%), as their documented clinical condition and social circumstances allowed for this.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 November 2022
  12. News Article
    Angry exchanges between paramedics and A&E staff in Liverpool have broken out after new measures were deployed to hold and treat patients in the back of ambulances. Sources said there have been “Mexican standoff” situations at Aintree Hospital in recent days, after hospital staff insisted patients who had been brought inside should be returned to ambulance vehicles. Staff at North West Ambulance Service told HSJ they were informed of a new protocol last week, which said patients should be kept in the back of ambulances if the corridor of the emergency department is full with patients. There have been repeated orders from NHS England and the Care Quality Commission over the past year for hospitals to ensure patients can be offloaded by ambulance crews, even if they fear they do not have adequate staffing or beds to accept them. One senior source at NWAS said: “To see a new protocol like this is absolutely unprecedented. I very much doubt the execs had approved it. “We’ve had Mexican standoff situations over the weekend with crews who have brought patients into ED being told to take them back out to their vehicles, but they’ve refused to do this as it means they cannot cohort. “We completely accept that taking extra patients means the ED and hospital staff have to deal with additional and unacceptable risk, but holding ambulances is not the solution because the risks to patients out in the community are even greater. Despite repeated instructions from NHS England and the CQC this still doesn’t seem to be understood.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 October 2022
  13. Content Article
  14. Content Article
    Key points Beginning to understand the complexity of physical health concerns in people with mental ill-health conditions will help move practice towards a more holistic approach Embracing health promotion can have a positive impact on patients' physical and mental health Looking at ourselves and how we practise can only be of benefit to those we come in contact with CPD reflection questions for paramedics Have you ever witnessed diagnostic overshadowing, and how did it affect the patient? Do the challenges of dealing with mental health patients obscure your own consideration of the physical health aspects when caring for patients with mental illness? Do you consider health promotion with patients, and does this change with those experiencing mental health problems? How can you make changes to your own practice to address the issues raised in this article?
  15. News Article
    Hundreds of people a day across London are waiting hours for an emergency ambulance to get to them, as paramedics warn that patients are dying as a result of delays. Patients in emergency calls classified as category two, such as those involving a suspected stroke or chest pains, should be seen by paramedics within an average of 18 minutes but are being forced in some cases to wait up to 10 hours. Even life-threatening calls where patients are in cardiac arrest and should be reached within seven minutes have experienced delays, with data suggesting one such call was waiting 20 minutes on Monday. Internal data shared with The Independent shows that London Ambulance Service is holding hundreds of open 999 calls for hours at a time with the service’s boss acknowledging in an email to staff that the service is struggling to maintain standards. Experts warned that the problems in the capital were reflected in ambulance services across the country. One paramedic told The Independent: “Patients desperately requiring ambulances aren’t getting them and, anecdotally, people are deteriorating and dying whilst waiting. Our poor dispatchers have to stare at screens of held calls, working out who gets the next available resource and who waits, suffers or dies.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 5 January 2021
  16. News Article
    A robot paramedic is to be used for the first time to carry out chest compressions on ambulance patients to free up the emergency team who can perform other vital treatments. The device is known as LUCAS 3 and is able to deliver consistent, high-quality CPR chest compressions whilst the patient is on their journey to hospital. CPR is essential to maintaining oxygen levels in the body and flow of blood when someone is no longer breathing. South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) is the first ambulance service in the country to use the robots, which cost about £12,000. An SCAS spokesman said: “Once paramedics arrive and begin CPR or take over from bystanders who may have initiated it, the transition from manual compressions to LUCAS can be completed within seven seconds, ensuring continuity of compressions.” Data of the event can also be collected which can be reviewed at a later date. Dr John Black, medical director at SCAS, said: “We know that delivering high quality and uninterrupted chest compressions in cardiac arrest is one of the major determinants of survival to hospital discharge but it can be very challenging for a number of reasons. “People can become fatigued when performing CPR manually which then affects the rate and quality of compressions, and patients may need to be moved from difficult locations, such as down a narrow flight of stairs, or remote places which impedes the process.” Dr Black went on to explain that these devices don’t “fatigue or change” their delivery as a human might. This means “high quality CPR can be delivered for as long as is required.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 May 2020
  17. News Article
    Paramedics in London have started wearing body cameras after a 34% jump in the number of violent attacks on ambulance crews. A trial of the technology is being rolled out across the capital in areas where workers are thought to be more at risk based on past incidents. Paramedics can press a button to start recording if patients or the public become aggressive or abusive towards them. London Ambulance Service told The Independent there had been an increase in physical assaults in recent years. Attacks jumped from 468 in the financial year 2018-19 to 625 in the year 2019-20, a 34% rise. Gary Watson, based at Croydon Ambulance Station, will be one of the first staff members to wear a camera. He was violently assaulted by a drunk patient three years ago. He said: “We need these cameras. We get up every day to help people, not to be severely beaten. “Wearing these cameras should act as a deterrent and if it doesn’t then at least there will be evidence which will hopefully mean tougher sentences for criminals.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 23 February 2021
  18. News Article
    We have been coughed on and shouted at by people refusing to wear face masks. We need more protection, says NHS paramedic Jake Jones. The outpouring of appreciation for NHS staff during the COVID-19 crisis has been extraordinary. Yet reports of a recent rise in attacks on emergency workers, including ambulance crews, in England and Wales suggests the Thursday evening applause was hiding a less positive reality. Abuse of emergency workers is a growing issue: a 2018 survey found that 72% of ambulance staff have been attacked on duty, and figures have repeatedly pointed to an upward trend. As an NHS paramedic for 10 years, this aligns with Jake's own experience. The consultation on increasing sentences for assaults on emergency workers seeks to discourage attacks on them. Jake's hope is that it will also challenge what has become an ingrained view – that being abused and assaulted somehow goes with the territory. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 September 2020 Read Jake's book 'Can you hear me? An NHS paramedics encounters with life and death'
  19. News Article
    An 'expanded workforce' will be delivering flu and a potential COVID-19 vaccine, under proposals unveiled by the Government today. The three-week consultation also focuses on a proposal of mass vaccinations against COVID-19 using a yet-to-be-licensed vaccine, if one becomes available this year. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is hoping new legislation could come into effect by October, ahead of the winter season. The consultation proposes to amend the Human Medicine Regulations 2012 to "expand the workforce legally allowed to administer vaccines under NHS and local authority occupational health schemes, so that additional healthcare professionals in the occupational health workforce will be able to administer vaccines". It said this would include 'midwives, nursing associates, operating department practitioners, paramedics, physiotherapists and pharmacists'. The consultation said: "This will help ensure we have the workforce needed to deliver a mass COVID-19 vaccination programme, in addition to delivery of an upscaled influenza programme, in the autumn." The consultation also said that "there is a possibility that both the flu vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered at the same time, and we need to make sure that in this scenario there is sufficient workforce to allow for this". Read full story Source: Pulse, 28 August 2020
  20. News Article
    The number of paramedics taking time off with mental health conditions has almost tripled over the last decade, a Guardian analysis has found. In 2019, paramedics took 52,040 days off due to anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illnesses, up from 18,184 in 2011 – an increase of 186%. While the overall number of paramedics has increased slightly over the period, the rate of mental health leave has increased more, resulting in the average number of days taken off per paramedic in a year rising from 2.8 to 5.8. Unison’s head of health, Sara Gorton, said: “Crisis-level staffing has increasingly become the norm within the NHS in recent years, even before the pandemic. Working long hours without breaks, in demanding conditions, it’s no wonder it’s taken a toll on the mental health of workers across the health service. And the coronavirus challenges have piled on more pressure.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 July 2020
  21. News Article
    In a letter seen by The Independent to ambulance trust chief executives, union officials have warned the health of paramedics is being put at risk due to "unsustainable demand". Union bosses have also warned paramedics are being left in tears at the end of their 12 hour shifts and often working overtime in order to meet demand, warning this increased amount of pressure is taking its toll on the health of ambulance workers. “Ambulance workers have faced exceptional pressures over the past 17 months. It’s not surprising many have reached burnout. They cannot be left to just carry on doing excessive hours without proper breaks and rest between shifts. Employers must act swiftly by doing all they can to limit the unprecedented pressures on staff. Additional welfare support is needed, and the government should make this a top priority.” Says Deputy head of health Helga Pile. Read full story. Source: The Independent, 02 August 2021
  22. Content Article
    Key points: Student paramedic practice, especially in the placement environment, mirrors human factors seen post registration, but also has its own unique set which require further research. The relationship between student and mentoring paramedics is a unique and important human factor in student development. Many clinicians may not feel prepared or willing to undertake a mentorship role. More training and support for mentoring paramedics would be of benefit. Emotional stresses faced by students when they initially encounter emotive aspects of the placement environment should be recoginised. Institutions and placement providers should encourage students to identify and practise coping mechanisms as well as offer support. Placement environments vary nationally and globally, and due to the nature of the job, it is difficult to nurture confident students and clinicians. However, adaptions could be made to reduce stresses on both parties.
  23. Content Article
  24. News Article
    Hannah Rusby reassures her patient he’s in good hands. He is in his eighties, skeletal, confused and struggling to answer basic questions. His breathing is rapid. After a few minutes of probing questions and basic tests, Rusby knows this is serious — after months of decline while living alone, the man is critically ill and needs to go to hospital urgently. With more than 500,000 people waiting for social care assessments across England, emergency calls such as this are increasingly common. “We are becoming a middleman for all the other services,” said Rusby, who qualified as a paramedic seven years ago and works for the London Ambulance Service (LAS). She said the job increasingly involves responding to people who fall through society’s cracks. Daniel Elkeles, 49, chief executive of the LAS, agrees: “There are lots of patients who, if something else were available, we wouldn’t need to take them to hospital. As the population has got older and frailer, it’s unsurprising that an increasing number of the calls are not traditional emergencies.” He believes paramedics can be the link between GPs, community nursing and social care. From next week, the LAS will pilot having three cars covering six boroughs in southwest London. Each will have a paramedic and a community nurse and will respond to 999 calls from elderly people who have fallen at home. They’re going to see every frail elderly person who has fallen [and] hasn’t broken a bone, and our aim is to keep all of those patients at home. The community nurse will assess the house to make sure it’s safe then refer the patient to their GP and an urgent community response team,” said Elkeles. The service hopes this will mean as many as 1,000 fewer people going to A&E a year. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Sunday Times, 2 September 2022
  25. News Article
    The number of calls for an ambulance in England have almost doubled since 2010, with warnings of record pressures on the NHS that are seeing A&E patients stuck in corridors and many paramedics quitting the job. Ambulance calls have risen by 10 times more than the number of ambulance workers, according to a new analysis of NHS data carried out by the GMB union. An increase in people seeking emergency treatment, GPs unable to cope with demand and cuts to preventive care are all being blamed for the figures. While the figures represent all calls for an ambulance, some of which go unanswered and do not lead to a vehicle being sent, they reveal the increasing pressures that have led to claims that patient safety is being put at risk by ambulance waiting times. There has been a significant increase in the number of the most serious safety incidents logged by paramedics in England over the past year. Paul, a paramedic and GMB deputy branch secretary, said he had recently seen a crew waiting almost 10 hours between arriving at hospital and transferring a patient to hospital care. “They arrived at the hospital at 20.31,” he said. “They then cleared from the hospital at 05.48 in the morning. The impact of the lack of resources is affecting the ambulance service. “We are also seeing people become aggressive to the ambulance crew, because they’ve waited hours upon hours in an ambulance." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 June 2022
×
×
  • Create New...