"73 year old male, low blood pressure"
In a change from the norm, I was sat blissfully relaxing on standby on the Fast Response Unit (FRU). It may have been a clapped out Vauxhall Zafira with a billion miles on the clock, help together with micropore tape, but it had a radio and the was a Michael Buble CD doing its thing! Oh, and I had a massive vanilla latte from Costa! Bliss! I couldn't moan too much when after two hours I was sent a job. It was a low priority call which the FRUs don't normally attend but it was accompanied with a ringing radio!
"Whiskey Delta Four Zero go ahead."
"This CAD you're running on, the is a private crew on scene requesting your opinion on a patient with very low blood pressure. They are not happy moving the patient until a paramedic gives them them OK."
"Rog, thank you."
Great! Another private! Based on recent experiences I should have been more than cynical but fair enough, they have recognised an ill patient and have asked for help. No complaints there, at least they have the patients interest at heart.
I pulled up on scene, grabbed my bag and headed into the care home. I was taken by manager to the room where the patient was. As I walked down the corridor I heard a voice I recognised followed by the most heinous of laughs. The kind of laugh that is totally inappropriate in front of a patient. In the room was Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, one with hands in pockets, chewing gum like Sir Alex Ferguson and the other sitting in the patients arm chair, leg on knee, on his phone. Standing next to the cot bed was the patients daughter and a carer. I was given the most vague of handovers, culminating in being told his blood pressure was 65/23.
For those in the know, a BP that low is very serious. Very serious indeed. It would also be accompanied with other symptoms. There were none. With a BP that low you wouldn't expect to be able to feel a pulse. There was a VERY strong pulse. Attached to his arm was one of those blood pressure machines you can get in the chemist.
"Is this what you used to take his blood pressure?"
"Yeah"
"Is it yours?"
"Nah, it's theirs."
"So have you taken a manual blood pressure as well?"
"Nah."
Are they for real?! I promptly did a manual blood pressure which was perfectly normal, 142/85 to be precise. I checked him over and he was fine. His reason for going to hospital was at a GP request for scan he was due to have. There was nothing acutely wrong with him.
"Right guys, do you want to grab your chair, we'll get him downstairs now."
"*chew chew* We'll just use one of their wheelchairs. *chew chew*"
Due to the patients disability I didn't think a normal wheelchair was ideal, as it wouldn't have any straps. Needless to say, my fears were ignored. Rather than get the chair himself, he sent the home manager to go and get it. Whilst waiting they continues to make stupid, childish, crass jokes. I was so embarrassed. These idiots are representing the NHS. When someone calls 999 they have an expectation of what an ambulance crew will be like. These two were a total embarrassment to the profession.
After a few minutes, the chair arrived.
"Right, shall we top and tail him." (one under the shoulders, one under the legs, and lift)
"We're not lifting him, *chew chew* our insurance won't cover it. *chew chew* Use a hoist."
The carer disappeared and returned with a hoist. She started putting the lifting sling on the patient and asked for assistance. I began to help from my side of the bed. The carer asked Tweedle Dum to help on the opposite side.
"*chew chew* Sorry, we're not allowed to help with hoisting, *chew chew* we are not trained in it *chew chew."
So, I walked around the bed, helped get him in the hoist and between me and the carer, lifted him into the wheel chair. Tweedle Dee had vanished and I wasn't going to ask Tweedle Dum to bother pushing the chair so with my bag on my back, downstairs we went.
In the lobby was Tweedle Dee with the bed. Wow! Pro-active, wonders will never cease.
"Right, can we lift him across to the bed."
"*chew chew* Nah, we'll use the hoist again *chew chew*."
I'm guessing the "we" was meant to be ironic.
"Seriously, put the chewing gum in the bin or I will call and ask for another crew to convey, this is ridiculous."
With that, I handed the patient to the carer, stomped off to the lift, went back upstairs, grabbed the hoist and went back down. They looked pretty sheepish but he wasn't chewing gum. Me and the carer hoisted him onto the bed and I strapped him in.
Out of earshot of the patient I turned to Tweedle Dee, "Can you push the bed?"
"Yeah, no need to be sarcastic."
The patient was loaded on board and taken off to hospital. If there had been anything wrong with the patient I would have travelled with them. However, as he was well and the hospital was half a mile away I just followed behind in my car.
To say I had words with the crew at hospital would be a massive understatement. I told them exactly what I thought about them and their behaviour and took their names and call sign. Tweedle Dum wouldn't give me his name and just kept repeating his call sign at me.
Since when are we not allowed to lift patients? What if there was no hoist, like in most places? I'm all for protecting my back, but really?! Insurance won't cover lifting a patient? Do we just leave them on the floor now? 'Sorry, not allowed to pick you up, you're on ya own luv'! Let us not forget, we are told by the government that tendering for contracts will lead to better competition and better patient care. The NHS certainly has its faults, that's no secret and it also employs some bad eggs but this is now getting dangerous.
THIS is the NHS. THIS is the future. YOUR life in THEIR hands. NO regulation. NO standards.
I'm sure I will told I'm taring all private ambulance services and their employees with the same brush unfairly and those who do, or know good people that work for them, I apologise. I have no doubt there are good people working in every company and this isn't about them. There is a reason people are sacked from ambulance services. These private companies give them a job in full knowledge of their past. As the old adage goes, you can't polish a turd. Sticking a new uniform on an unprofessional moron will not change a thing.
A complaint was made. Outcome, unknown.
This is my opinion. This blog was based on 1 crew and my experiences. Not all Private Ambulance services are bad, not all crews are bad but I can only write on what I experience. I'm not interested in any comments left about the QCC regulating etc. It isn't done properly and there are some real cowboy outfits out there. It is of little surprise that my service has announced it is trying to move away from using them. Now why would they do that if they were so cost effective and so reliable? *tumbleweed*