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Showing results for tags 'Paramedic'.
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News Article
Paramedics say people are getting ill because their homes are so cold
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
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 worker- Posted
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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.- Posted
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News Article
"If we are queuing, we can't get to patients"
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
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 -
News Article
A&E staff ordered to receive ambulances ‘in all instances’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
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 in- Posted
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News Article
Half of ambulance arrivals ‘inappropriate’, says acute trust
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
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 coul -
News Article
Paramedics in ‘Mexican standoff’ with A&E staff after ‘unprecedented’ rule change
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
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 pati- Posted
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News Article
Paramedics pilot plan to reduce huge ambulance queues at A&E
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
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 -
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- Posted
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News Article
Ambulance services on fringe of collapse
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance services are under intense pressure, with record numbers of callouts and the most urgent, category-one, calls last month. BBC Two's Newsnight programme spent from 08:00 to 20:00 on Monday at six hospitals with the longest delays handing patients over from paramedics to accident and emergency staff. This should take 15 minutes or less - but crews often wait many hours and sometimes whole 12-hour shifts, with ambulances queuing outside unable to respond to other emergency calls. At Royal Cornwall, 25 ambulances were queuing by the afternoon, three for at least 10-and-a-h -
News Article
Doctors to overhaul car wreck rescue techniques amid new evidence
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
There are plans for a major overhaul of how people are rescued from car wrecks amid growing evidence that current methods where people wait to be cut free may be harmful. Last year there were 127,967 casualties and 1,560 deaths in England caused by motor vehicle collisions. During the same period, more than 7,000 patients needed to helped out of the vehicle through a process known as extrication, where rescue crews use “Jaws of Life” and other tools to pry apart the wreckage, and then carefully lift people out. “Since at least the 1980s, firefighters have been trained with movement m -
News Article
Paramedics set up units inside A&E to ease long queues
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Paramedics have begun looking after patients inside an A&E unit, in an initiative by the health service to stop ambulances queueing outside hospitals and ease the strain on overstretched casualty staff. The scheme has led to patients being handed over much more quickly at a hospital that was one of the worst in England for sick people being stuck, sometimes for many hours, in the back of an ambulance. Queen’s hospital in Romford, in east London, has set up an ambulance receiving centre (ARC) near its main casualty unit in which two London Ambulance Service paramedics are on duty- Posted
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News Article
Student paramedics are missing out on learning how to save lives because they are wasting hours in ambulances outside A&E instead of attending calls, it has been revealed. The College of Paramedics and ambulance directors say the hold-ups mean trainees are missing vital on-the-job experience, leading to fears over the safety of patients. Will Boughton, of the College of Paramedics Trustee for Professional Standards, said handover delays had become a problem for trainees’ development and exposure to real-life experience, meaning training had become “unpredictable”. If steps w -
News Article
Paramedics are ‘leaving in droves’ as ambulance callouts almost double
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
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 un- Posted
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News Article
Crowded A&Es mean Scottish paramedics play the waiting game
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Paramedic Moira Shaw is eyeing the frantic activity at the front doors of Edinburgh's emergency department. She is waiting for the go-ahead to hand over her patients to medics and answer the next 999 call. It can be a long wait. Last week, 1 in 10 ambulances across Scotland took more than 80 minutes to drop patients at an emergency department. BBC Scotland joined Moira and colleague Blair Paul at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where they were among seven ambulances waiting to drop off patients. "At the moment we can be an hour waiting, we sit in the ambulance and we wait- Posted
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- Accident and Emergency
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News Article
Welsh Ambulance: Paramedics say job is soul destroying
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
"Absolutely soul destroying" is how one paramedic describes his job. He is not alone. Over the past few months, BBC Wales has been contacted by employees from the Welsh Ambulance Service who paint a dire picture of a service under immense pressure. Ambulance waiting times have climbed and climbed throughout the pandemic. The impact that has on patients is well known - but what about those on the other side? Mark, who did not want to disclose his real name or show his face for fear that he would lose his job, described the stress of his shifts with a radio strapped to his ch- Posted
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- Paramedic
- Lack of resources
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Content Article
Pre-Hospital Care Podcast: Designing the RSI
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Techniques
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News Article
More than half of NHS paramedics suffering from burnout
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Over half of paramedics are suffering from burnout caused by “overwhelming” workloads, record numbers of 999 calls and the public misusing the ambulance service, a study has found. Frontline crew members also blame lack of meal breaks, delays in reaching seriously ill patients and their shift often not ending when it should for their high levels of stress and anxiety. The working lives of ambulance staff are so difficult that nine out of 10 display symptoms of “depersonalisation”, characterised by “cynicism, detachment and reduced levels of empathy” when dealing with patients who nee- Posted
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- Fatigue / exhaustion
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Content Article
This study from Rachel Beldon and Joanne Garside looked at the contributory factors for burnout in the ambulance service to inform recommendations for positive change. 94% of ambulance staff in this study reported a sense of personal achievement within their professional role; however, more than 50% were experiencing varying levels of burnout with 87% displaying moderate or high levels of depersonalisation towards their work. Causes of stress were complex: themes attributed were a perceived lack of management support, the public's misuse of the ambulance service, involuntary overtime- Posted
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- Fatigue / exhaustion
- Mental health
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News Article
Paramedics jailed for stealing medication from dying patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two paramedics have been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing medication from terminally ill patients. Ruth Lambert, 33, and Jessica Silvester, 29, of the South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb), preyed specifically on people receiving end-of-life care packages, Kent Police said in a statement. The pair, who live together at Gap Road in Margate, accessed addresses of patients in the east Kent area through their work and posed as nurses to gain access to patients’ homes to steal morphine and other painkillers. They worked in tandem, one researching the addresses and- Posted
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News Article
The paramedics keeping patients out of hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Chest pains for a 63-year-old man might typically mean a hospital trip to check it out. But after Clive Pietzka's 999 call, an advanced paramedic practitioner carried out tests and discharged him. The Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) job is one of those in a growing team who work to keep people out of hospital. Solutions like this are being sought following ambulance queues for hospital and worst ever performance figures. Mr Pietzka, from Barry, who has a heart problem, said initially he did not want to call an ambulance because of high demand. "They're very busy with C -
Content Article
The data included in the review identified that 10% of patients experience a PSI in prehospital care. The review also provides more detailed insights into the prevalence of PSIs and associated harm in prehospital care, and the authors argue that this evidence justifies giving the same level of attention to patient safety in prehospital care as is given to secondary care. They also state that the review gives direction as to how to advance methods for identifying PSIs and harm in prehospital care. -
News Article
Paramedics left in tears from ‘unsustainable demand’, warns union
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
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 d- Posted
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