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What Is First Aid? What is the Recovery Position?
Globally, millions of people die each year as a result of accidents or serious injury. First Aid should be part of the school curriculum
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WHO declares swine flu pandemic
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global flu pandemic after holding an emergency meeting
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US: Role of EMTs in executions criticized
“We have never used any doctors or nurses in the process, and we wouldn’t want to do that because it conflicts with any oath they have taken as it relates to preserving lives”
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Sudan: Motorbike maternity dashes for mums-to-be
Mothers-to-be in South Sudan will soon be shipped to hospital by motorbike ambulance in a radical move to cut infant mortality
UK News
Ambulance trust status is ‘unnecessary’
A presentation on East Midlands Ambulance Service’s bid to gain foundation trust status got a mixed response from councillors
Tragic 999 patient was not an ‘emergency’
A coroner has labelled the ambulance service system ‘daft’ following the death of a pensioner
No morphine and a six-hour wait for ambulance
A woman endured a night of excruciating pain after shattering her leg in a fall – because an ambulance did not come for six-and-a-half hours
Ambulance crew injured en route to emergency
Paramedics needed hospital treatment after they were involved in a collision while en route to an emergency call
Ambulance bosses ‘failed to keep promise’ claim
Ambulance bosses failed to keep a promise to allow paramedics more flexibility over where to take patients for treatment
Police car and ambulance in smash
A policeman was cut out of his car after a high-speed collision with an ambulance on its way to an emergency in Hampstead
Plan for non-urgent health number
A new non-emergency NHS number could be introduced across England, it has been announced. The Department of Health said the number would provide an alternative to 999 in cases where people do not need to go to A&E
Think before dialling 999
Alcohol-related falls and minor injuries are one of the most common reasons for paramedics to be called out at weekends – and sometimes an ambulance is not needed
Emergency ‘place of safety’ for the mentally ill
Nottingham’s first emergency facility for people found to be mentally ill in a public place is set to open this summer
Heart attack victim died on journey
Suffolk’s need for its own specialist heart attack centre was shown when a heart attack victim died during a rush for treatment last week, it emerged
MORE IN UK News
World News
Air Ambulance Card to Provide Medical Evacuation Worldwide
Air Ambulance Card® provides travelers with prepaid hospital-to-hospital air ambulance service, domestically and abroad.
US: Boy allegedly steals from ambulance as mom treated
A boy was arrested over the weekend on charges of stealing from an ambulance while paramedics were treating his mother
Mexico: Criminals blow up ambulance to kill injured rival
A group of armed men blew up an ambulance, apparently with a grenade, to kill a rival who was being transferred from one hospital to another
Australia: Flu ‘may tip pandemic’
A sharp increase in swine flu cases in Australia may mean the infection has become a pandemic, the World Health Organization say
US: Policeman Fights Paramedics With Patient In Ambulance
Oklahoma’s Tulsa World newspaper reports on a fight between a brown-shirted highway patrol officer, who has pulled over an ambulance that was racing a patient to hospital, and the paramedic
Zambia: Scientists identify new lethal virus in Africa
A paramedic in Lusaka who became sick, was transported to Johannesburg and died. The three others infected were health care workers in Johannesburg
Ireland: HSE orders review of spending in its national ambulance office
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has ordered an audit of spending in its national ambulance office following a series of revelations by The Sunday Times
Fiji: Ambulance needed
Vunidawa Hospital in Naitasiri, Fiji needs more vehicles, including an ambulance
Ireland: Calls for ambulance regulation
A private ambulance service provider has called for regulation of the sector “to ensure patient safety”
Improving the quality of healthcare across Europe
Pre-hospital emergency care in the form of ambulances is one of the key factors improving the quality of healthcare across Europe
MORE IN World News
Opinion
Corporate times in the non-corporate public sector
Regular ParamedicUK contributor Scoot McEye writes this month about Foundation Trust status.
Following the careerist obsession of aspirational public sector managers desperate to tick boxes and drive ambulance services across the UK towards Foundation Trust status at any cost we should not forget that these objectives work well on paper but in reality the very people who experience the cost and implications of such implementation have not been consulted. On closer examination moderacy exists amongst those at the front line, their voices silenced and their opinions trodden upon by a filthy senior management intent on employing the dirty PR-based window-dressing tactics more usually associated with politicians.
The advantage lies in the ‘patient experience’. This we know to be a singular happening and despite a loud but solitary voice little is created beyond a minor ripple in the waters of progression and alas our public sector directors continue to rape what was fought for over many years. They have seen the future and the future is privatisation. It should be our mission to disrupt their otherwise effortless attempts to ensure a personal profit and foothold in such ventures. Despite Aneurin Bevan’s demise in the hearts and minds of such avaricious miscreants his work and that of all those who dreamt of social, healthcare and welfare provision managed to provide a platform for the truly hopeless to rise through and above such altruism and redefine it as something so monstrously self-serving. Too often our senior managers and moderate union representatives declare that times have changed and we need to be geared up and ready for the inevitable corporate approach requisite in the 21st century. Lies, more lies and filthier lies to come from partly-educated scum.
If you would like to contribute to ParamedicUK please contact us. We welcome news items, articles about clinical practice or your opinion about anything relevant to working as a paramedic.
MORE IN Opinion
ParamedicUK now on iPhone/Android
ParamedicUK is now available for iPhone and Android. Thanks to the incredible work by BraveNewCode, their WPtouch plugin gives Android and iPhone users a fully optimised experience when viewing the site. Just point your phone at ParamedicUK and WPtouch will do the rest!NHS Trusts
Ambulance trusts ‘failing to meet response-time targets’
Nearly half of England’s ambulance trusts are taking too long to respond to life-threatening emergencies
More in NHS Trusts
- Ambulance service loses chief
- Ambulance trusts failing to meet response-time targets
- More than 3000 NHS staff on long-term sick leave in Scotland
- SCAS: we need volunteers to hit waiting times
- NEAS launches ‘Foundation Trust’ consultation
- Chief was ‘misled’ over A&E before quitting West Middlesex Hospital trust
- “Enormous pressure” call on failing ambulance bosses
- New boss at Yorkshire Ambulance Service
- Ambulances spread the word FAST
- Ambulance services move in to Tesco’s to cut response times
Clinical Matters
Swine flu ‘hits airways harder’
H1N1 swine flu attacks the respiratory system in a more sustained way than the standard seasonal virus, research in animals shows
More in Clinical Matters
- Night shift work can cause host of health problems
- Mystery of the Spanish Flu Solved
- Acetaminophen (paracetamol) to be banned by FDA?
- Barriers To Best Resuscitation Practices
- Hospital Disaster Potential Highighted
- A quarter of Britons are hazardous drinkers
- Response To Sexual Assault
- Prehospital identification and treatment of inhalant abuse
- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation in children
- Too Much of a Good Thing?
Unions
UNISON: House of Lords Holiday Pay Victory
The House of Lords has decided in favour of the workers in the long-running ‘holiday pay’ litigation, overturning the Court of Appeal.
More in Unions
Equipment
Ambulance Of Tomorrow Unveiled
Smart Pod’, ideas for the ambulance of the future – was unveiled to the NHS and the healthcare industry at the NHS Innovation Expo in London
More in Equipment
- Ambulances too heavy for bridge
- Movano front-line with WMAS
- CPR App for iPhone – Full Code Pro
- Instant, Reliable Emergency Communications
- Equipped for the heaviest and most critical operations
- Kids are safer in Scots ambulances
- Vote of confidence for the two-wheeled ambulance
- Arms firm bids to buy ambulances
- BMW X6 ambulance concept
- Intensive care trolley launched
Health & Safety
Hazardous Area Response Teams
Firefighters in Hertfordshire are training paramedics to use breathing equipment so they can treat victims of chemical spills, even before they are moved to a safe area
