Ambulance bbc1

I take my hat off to A&E staff & paramedics. While cardiac surgeons, neurosurgeons & transplant surgeons for instance, do unbelievable, amazing things, emergency medicine is the coalface. The breadth of knowledge & ability to think on your feet it demands, all the while working with stressed people in time-critical conditions! I think they do an amazing job.

My daughter just rang me. She`s been in A&E with her husband for several hours, there are 92 people waiting to be seen, plus 8 ambulances with patients waiting outside!

Truth is often more enlightening than fiction

My daughter just told me that last week she spent over 6 hours with one of her scouts who had dislocated his knee and it took over 6 hours to get an ambulance to come out. And that a boy broke his leg on a football pitch and had to lie there for even longer waiting for an ambulance. When he finally got to the hospital he needed a 4 hour operation to repair ( probably save) his leg. And that an elderly man had a heart attack and collapsed in a road and the traffic had to be diverted around him for a long time. What on earth is going on! She said we all need to know where our nearest defibrillator is in case we need to get it in an emergency.

Before retiring I worked as nurse in charge of the night-shift in a medium size care home. It is always an awful shock when you go in to check on a resident and find them dead. Over the years, I have been very grateful for the time the ambulance crew spent with me, even though there was nothing they could do. Their support was invaluable.
The programme highlights just how stretched the NHS is.
Last night I felt for the crew waiting to assist with any injuries from the unidentified explosive device. Manchester must still be jittery after the arena bombing.

Was that the one where the paramedic was a priest? (I was half watching it with half an eye). What I didn't understand was why he spent so long at the care home when the man had already passed away. He could have been whizzing off to other patients.

I watch this programme on catch up and am in awe of how the paramedics deal with what they face. I had to call 999 several times last year and the ambulance arrived quickly each time. Presumably I was rated a Category 2! At one point I sat outside our hospital in an ambulance queue for several hours and the staff dealt with the situation amazingly. A doctor came out and treated me in the ambulance.