Category Archives: Emergency services

Paramedics set up units inside A&E to ease long queues

Posted on by

Experiment in London speeds up handover by emergency ambulance crews to doctors and is safer for patients

Paramedics have begun looking after patients inside an A&E unit, in an initiative by the health service to stop ambulances queueing outside hospitals and ease the strain on overstretched casualty staff.

The scheme has led to patients being handed over much more quickly at a hospital that was one of the worst in England for sick people being stuck, sometimes for many hours, in the back of an ambulance.

Continue reading...

‘Covid has broken us’: warnings of a mass resignation among Victorian paramedics

Posted on by

Exclusive: 16% plan to look for new jobs according to survey of 348 Ambulance Victoria staff

Bill Briggs had worked as a paramedic for more than three decades when, during Victoria’s second extended Covid lockdown, he “lost the plot”.

“I was just plodding along, doing the job, not getting any complaints from anyone and then I had a disagreement with another paramedic and I just exploded, which is not like me at all,” Briggs says.

Continue reading...

Ambulance staff ‘unable to drive’ new vehicles because of height and body shape

Posted on by

Documents obtained by BBC show 160 staff encountered problems with East of England ambulance service vehicles

Staff at an ambulance service have claimed they are unable to drive a new fleet of vehicles because of their height and body shape.

The East of England ambulance service (EEAST) rolled out the £54m converted Fiats to replace its deteriorating Mercedes vans, as part of an effort to standardise NHS ambulances.

Continue reading...

Fights broke out as top-down approach to Lismore flood response failed, inquiry told

Posted on by

Locals who were trying to help rescue residents and feed evacuees clashed with NSW agencies, community witnesses say

Lismore residents have told of fights breaking out between members of the public trying to help and officials attempting to implement a failed “top-down” approach during the height of the flood emergency.

Several community witnesses at a parliamentary inquiry into catastrophic flooding in the town told MPs on Tuesday they were completely disillusioned with Resilience NSW, the new agency established in 2020 to lead disaster and emergency efforts from prevention to recovery.

Continue reading...

‘You feel so light’: swimming dogs help emergency workers deal with trauma

Posted on by

Pete Lewin’s Newfoundlands also provide emotional therapy for veterans and young people with disabilities

“All you can hear is the water and the dogs paddling. That’s it, there’s nothing else,” said student paramedic Abigail Walker after emerging from Stanton lakes in Leicestershire, where she had been swimming with three Newfoundland dogs. “Until you’ve done it, I don’t think you realise how calming it is.”

It was her first time trying a type of emotional therapy pioneered by Pete Lewin, a paramedic who travels the country helping emergency services staff deal with trauma with the help of his pack of canines.

Continue reading...

NHS ambulance service cuts presence at Gatwick airport and sports venues

Posted on by

South East Coast service stops providing onsite paramedic at airport to focus on 999 response

An NHS ambulance service is cutting back its presence at Gatwick airport and major sports events so it has more crews available to answer 999 calls, amid unprecedented pressures.

The South East Coast ambulance service (Secamb) has ended a longstanding arrangement under which Gatwick paid it to have an ambulance car and paramedic on site.

Continue reading...

Volunteers to be used for 999 calls in London as ambulance service struggles

Posted on by

Pilot scheme will see trained volunteers responding to ‘category three’ calls where extra help needed due to mobility problems

Volunteers could be responding to urgent 999 calls in London within weeks, as the capital’s ambulance service tries to tackle mounting delays.

A pilot scheme, revealed in London ambulance service (LAS) board papers at the end of March, will focus on people who fall into “category three”, where they require a response within two hours, and need extra help because of mobility problems.

Continue reading...

Home births cancelled at short notice due to Victoria’s ambulance crisis

Posted on by

The state’s two publicly funded home-birth programs are suspended, with some expectant mothers not told until weeks before due dates

Expectant mothers are having planned home births cancelled within weeks of their due dates, with Victoria’s ambulance crisis putting intense strain on the state’s maternity services.

Victoria has just two publicly funded home-birth programs at Sunshine and Casey hospitals – both of which are now temporarily suspended. Assisted home births require ambulances to be available in case of any complications during the procedure.

Continue reading...

NHS in England and Wales treated fewest ever violence-related injuries in 2020

Posted on by

Lockdown was reason behind sharp fall in number of people treated by NHS for injuries outside the home, say researchers

Lockdown led to the smallest number of people on record being treated by the NHS for injuries caused by violence away from the home, a study shows.

The closure of pubs, clubs and other venues that sell alcohol as part of the bans on social mixing was a key reason for the sharp decline in serious violence, the researchers say.

Continue reading...

Ambulance technician killed in accident in Herefordshire

Posted on by

The technician was attending a 999 call when an object struck the ambulance windscreen

An ambulance technician has died after an object struck his vehicle’s windscreen as he was responding to a 999 call in Herefordshire.

The incident took place at 8am on Saturday at the junction of Moreton Road and the A49, near the village of Moreton on Lugg, north of Hereford.

Continue reading...

Police should carry drugs overdose antidote, says senior officer

Posted on by

Exclusive: NPCC’s drugs lead backs wider supply of naloxone after successful trials

The overdose antidote naloxone should be made available to all police officers in areas where there is a clear need, the police chiefs’ drug lead has urged after successful pilot schemes.

North Wales police and Police Scotland are trialling having beat officers carry naloxone nasal sprays that can be used to treat opiate overdoses, and West Midlands police have extended their pilot scheme, with a rollout due to be announced.

Continue reading...

Two Manchester Arena bombing victims could have been saved, inquiry hears

Posted on by

Evidence given that Saffie-Rose Roussos and John Atkinson could have survived with ‘different’ emergency service response

Firefighters did not arrive at Manchester Arena until two hours after the suicide bombing, only one paramedic entered the blast scene in the first 40 minutes, and Greater Manchester police (GMP) did not declare a major incident until the following day, the inquiry into the terror attack has heard.

The Manchester Arena inquiry, which resumed on Monday, moved to examine the response of the emergency services to the tragedy.

Continue reading...

Residents of Victorian town returning home after leaking dam forced evacuation

Posted on by

Emergency services have worked for two days to secure 180-megalitre dam in Torquay south-west of Melbourne

Emergency services have told 100 people living in a coastal Victorian town they are able to return home after volunteers worked for two days to secure a 180-megalitre private dam that was found to be leaking on Friday.

Volunteers knocked on doors at over 40 homes in Torquay, about 80km south-west of Melbourne, on Saturday afternoon telling 109 people to leave due to fears the privately owned dam could burst.

Continue reading...

Emergency services scrap £900k of vehicles after Salisbury attack

Posted on by

Police and ambulance units replaced 24 cars, vans and 4x4s due to novichok contamination

Emergency services spent hundreds of thousands of pounds scrapping and replacing contaminated vehicles after the Salisbury nerve agent poisonings, it has been revealed.

Police and ambulance services had to destroy 24 cars, vans and 4x4 vehicles following the attack on the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. The pair collapsed after coming into contact with novichok at Skripal’s home in Salisbury on 4 March last year. DS Nick Bailey, 39, was also taken to hospital.

Continue reading...

Firefighters tackle blaze in Birmingham warehouse

Posted on by

West Midlands fire service called to reports of a huge fire at a furniture warehouse

About 100 firefighters have been deployed to tackle a huge fire near a train station in Birmingham.

West Midlands fire service (WMFS) said they received several 999 calls at about 5.11am on Monday after reports of a large blaze at a furniture storage warehouse in Tyseley.

Continue reading...