The unnamed individual’s post was no longer required and the trust decided to offer a severance payment.

A spokesman for GWAS said the manager concerned had been on a variety of secondments for the past three years and during that time the salary was paid for by the host organisations.

The spokesman said the payment reflected the individual’s length of service.

via Wiltshire Times.

The most serious was the theft of a defibrillator, though this was later recovered by police.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) said all of the thefts have been reported to police.

via This is Hull and East Riding.

The figures for December, show that EMAS reached 72.8 per cent of the most serious calls – known as category A8 – within eight minutes.The target is 75 per cent, and the national average for December was 74 per cent.

EMAS also failed to hit targets for responding to less serious emergency calls.

via This is Nottingham.

Retired hotel manager John Barker, of Acomb, rang 999 in severe pain, but Yorkshire Ambulance Service nurse Alan Thomas Haugh overrode a computer system which would have triggered an immediate response by paramedics.

Instead, Mr Haugh, a father of three, told the 65-year-old that his condition did not appear life-threatening, and classed him as a Category C patient rather than Category A.

via York Press.

Thomas Dudley, 30, of Trafalgar Square, also admitted selling on a stolen Xbox games console following the burglary on November 15.

He also pleaded guilty to using threatening words and behaviour towards a passer-by in Trafalgar Square on November 24.

During a sentencing hearing at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court, the court heard how Dudley had committed all the offences whilst in drink.

via Scarborough Evening News.

The new unit at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton is the first stand-alone paediatric emergency department in the region.

Coogan was joined by young patients Rosie and Alfie Jones for the official ceremony yesterday (January 31).

Previously children have been treated within the adult A&E at Royal Sussex County Hospital.

via The Argus.

He says his problems began when the North West Ambulance Service introduced a policy of ‘hot-desking’ – where workers take any desk at the start of their shifts.The emergency dispatcher told his bosses of his condition and asked them to reserve a certain seat to prevent his disorder from flaring up.

via Manchester Evening News – menmedia.co.uk.

The ruling states that a type 1 or type 2 diabetic who takes insulin would lose their licence if they have two severe hypo attacks in one year.

But the problem lies in the use of the word severe and now Diabetes UK is working with the DVLA to clarify the rules so that people with diabetes are not unfairly penalised.

Bridget Turner, head of policy for Diabetes UK, said: “At the moment the word severe can be interpreted in many different ways by different people so there needs to be a clarification. There also needs to be clarification about whether night time hypo, in which people who have an attack in their sleep, are actually at risk.”

via Channel 4 News.

Throughout December 2011 and January 2012, Essex Police noted a sharp rise in the number of nuisance calls received by call handlers at their headquarters in Chelmsford.

Other examples of time-wasters that Essex Police dealt with over the past months include a women who asked police to remove a spider from her home, a man who wanted to know whether a bank in Basildon was open and another intoxicated man reporting that he’d seen a chef drop a burger on the floor and then serve it to a customer.

via The Enquirer.

Margaret McKay, 72, collapsed and died at home in Greenock in 2006 but her family was never told that two paramedics were later struck off for the way they treated her.

Mrs McKay’s death is one of at least five being investigated by the authorities after Sky News uncovered secrecy by health watchdog the Health Professions Council (HPC) and some ambulance services which kept details of misconduct from the families of dead patients.

via Sky News.