-
New Book – Pain: An Ambulance Perspective
A new book written by East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust paramedics to help deliver high quality care for patients has been launched. But it now from Amazon UK
-
Meningitis – Know the Symptoms iPhone, iPod and iPad app
Meningitis – Know the Symptoms is now available on iTunes.
-
Rethinking the ambulance
An 18-month-long project has led to a full-scale mock-up of an ambulance fit for the 21st century.
-
BHF Campaign: Emergency Life Support Skills in Schools
Join the fight to get every young person knowing how to save a life before they leave school. Having Emergency Life Support (ELS) skills should be as important as learning to read and write.
UK News
Care home residents ‘denied basic GP medical services’
Some doctors are refusing to visit elderly care home residents, a BBC investigation has found. Instead they are offering a diagnosis over the phone which care home managers say is unsatisfactory and dangerous. In one case, care home records show a GP refused or reluctantly made a visit to a man suffering from pneumonia on [...]
EEAS: Rise in complaints about ambulance delays
More than 160 complaints were received by the region’s ambulance service in the final three months of last year. The figures are contained in a quality report to be presented to the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s board when it meets on Wednesday. Of the 163 complaints registered during October, November and December, [...]
Ambulance merger expected by October
A merger between Great Western Ambulance Service and South West Ambulance Service could be in operation by October. An update will be received by the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee at a meeting next week following an announcement by the GWAS board in August 2011 that the organisation was not in a position to continue [...]
East Midlands paramedics pilot project to keep patients out of hospital
East Midlands ambulance service trust is piloting a new project that allows specially trained paramedics to decide whether patients should be treated at home, or referred to a GP or walk-in centre. The trial is part of the trust’s plans to keep people out of hospital where possible in an effort to cut the strain [...]
Ambulance workers have high accident and mortality rates but low anxiety and depression
A systematic review on ambulance personnel found that ambulance workers have a higher mortality rate, higher level of fatal accidents and higher rate of early retirement on medical grounds than the general working population. However, a survey among ambulance personnel indicates that they report lower levels of anxiety and depression symptoms, and tend to avoid [...]
Paramedics sign up to help resus research project
Bristol paramedics are set to take part in a study to find the best way of resuscitating patients whose hearts have stopped. Less than a fifth of patients who suffer a cardiac arrest out of hospital currently survive and a study is being held in the city to establish how paramedics might improve rates of [...]
MORE IN UK News
World News
‘Few aware’ of European holiday 112 emergency number
Most people do not know the number to call in the event of an emergency on holiday in Europe, a survey suggests. The Foreign Office poll of more than 2,000 people in the UK found that just 14% were aware the 112 number could reach the emergency services. Some 12% thought it connected to directory [...]
Toronto paramedics rally for essential service designation
Canada – Scores of paramedics rallied outside Toronto City Hall on Tuesday demanding they be declared an essential service in the face of a potential work stoppage that would cut staffing levels by 15 per cent. More than 100 paramedics gathered at Nathan Phillips Square Tuesday morning, chanting and waving pickets as they marched in [...]
Research flags up Irish A&E blackspots
Eire – People who fall suddenly ill in rural Kerry, north Mayo, west Clare and south-west Donegal are more than an hour’s drive from a hospital A&E, new research has revealed. The healthcare blackspots have been identified on maps which flag up gaps in access to services across the island of Ireland. Among the worst [...]
Indian TB cases cant be cured
Tuberculosis which appears to be totally resistant to antibiotic treatment has been reported for the first time by Indian doctors. Concern over drug-resistant strains of TB is growing, with similar incurable TB emerging in Italy and Iran. Doctors in Mumbai said 12 patients had a “totally drug resistant” form of the infection, and three have [...]
If Tim Tebow Was a Paramedic
Medic Madness Blog – This week’s “Celebrity Medic” features an NFL star that has captured headlines, stirred up political controversy and helped send the Squealers Steelers back home to Pittsburgh last Sunday. So with all his talent, money and fame, one would imagine that he would be set in his career for a long time, right? [...]
Paramedic seriously injured in collision recovering in hospital
Canada – A paramedic injured in a crash near Souris earlier in January has been upgraded to stable condition in hospital. The crash happened on PR 250 on Jan. 5. At the time of the collision, the ambulance was transporting a patient in a non-emergency call from Melita to Brandon. Witnesses suggested it appeared the [...]
MORE IN World News
Opinion
Handover delays at A&E a national scandal? Your experiences wanted
I was trawling the news sources this morning for items to post on ParamedicUK and was surprised by how many local news stories there were about handover delays at A&E departments at hospitals across the UK. I counted 12 in the past 24 hours!
Having waited regularly for up to 3 hours at my local A&E in the past month it’s clear this is a serious problem that is reducing the number of ambulances available for emergency calls and increasing the workload for single responders and the few ambulances left to deal with calls.
ParamedicUK wants to hear about your experiences. How often do you have long waits at A&E? What is your trust doing about it?
You can leave a comment here or Tweet @ParamedicUK.
MORE IN Opinion
NHS Trusts
EMAS loses appeal over contract decision
East Midlands Ambulance Service has lost its appeal against a decision not to award it the contract for running non-emergency transport. The regional trust received about £20 million a year for running the Patient Transport Service, with 550 staff involved in the scheme. But health bosses put the contract out to tender last year. NSL [...]
- Proposed merger of Great Western Ambulance Service is put before South Gloucestershire Council
- North East Ambulance Service faces major reorganisation
- EEAS: We are not massaging 999 figures
- NEAS faces major reorganisation
- EEAS gets more qualified paramedics
- EMAS buys vehicles to carry obese patients
More in NHS Trusts
Clinical Matters
Rise in stroke-related 999 calls
More people are dialling 999 when they suspect a stroke following a campaign to highlight key symptoms, the Government has said. The Act FAST stroke campaign is intended to show how emergency treatment can reduce the risk of death and disability from stroke, which affects around 150,000 people in the UK every year. Last April [...]
- Heart attack symptoms ‘differ in women’
- UK flu rates at all-time low
- Why hi-tech mannequins are training professionals of tomorrow
- Warm drinks and Bear hugs: how to handle hypothermia
- New Book – Pain: An Ambulance Perspective
- Blood pressure ‘should be measured in both arms’
More in Clinical Matters
Unions
Ambulance cuts feared by union
Plans for a number of ambulances to be taken off the road and replaced with one-man response vehicles could go ahead despite a trust failing to meet its targets over the Christmas period. Ambulance union GMB is calling “for an urgent meeting” with East of England Ambulance Trust’s EEAST chief executive, Hayden Newton, after the [...]
- GMB wants ambulance service upgraded to full emergency status
- Ambulance breaks row offer rejected by Unite members
- Ambulance ‘break’ offer rejected in GMB vote
- Pay freeze
- UNISON: House of Lords Holiday Pay Victory
- UNISON: Concerns about ambulance staff morale
More in Unions
Equipment
Dawn of the age of wireless medicine
Medical treatment is about to go wireless. New advances in microelectronics have enabled doctors to contemplate the day when they will be able to monitor and treat their patients with medical implants that use wi-fi, Bluetooth and other kinds of wireless technology. The latest development in this area is a medical implant controlled by wireless [...]
- Batteries fading on 999 calls
- Getac rugged laptop passes crash test for emergency vehicles
- Rethinking the ambulance
- TeleGuide 111 to transform NHS patient sorting
- 10 Products From EMS World Expo 2011
- Demand for bariatric ambulances ‘on the rise’
More in Equipment
Health & Safety
Wife is left distraught as ambulance crew refuse to lift disabled husband
A distraught Portadown pensioner has spoken out after being forced to hoist her seriously ill husband out of bed for a hospital appointment while ambulance personnel looked on. Frances Craig, 69, hit out at the recently implemented Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) policy which prevents staff from transferring patients using either hoists or slings. Mrs [...]
- 999 crews: We can’t rescue drowning man from 3ft pond… it’s too DEEP
- Company didn’t call ambulance for worker with broken neck
- Shift work is a health risk
- Ignorance of first aid behind health and safety concerns
- First aiders a must for all businesses
- 999 crews to lose ‘health and safety’
