London Ambulance Service

[Dustydog]

Yesterday it was announced 1800 jobs are to be lost at the London Ambulance Service.
By strange co-incidence last night's Holby City was themed around a major train crash. Lots and lots of high tech ambulances and paramedics were shown working hard.
With the Olympics on the horizon and London's ever increasing population the loss of 1800 jobs in the ambulance sector seems a bit more than a light trim to me.
I really hope we don't start seeing a deterioration in our medical services.

 

[RegandPat]

Here here good reply from Lord Braykewynde

 

[Philspadders]

it was 583 jobs over 5 years not 1800.

 

[Dustydog]

Thanks LB. Excelent explanation.
What a fiasco.
Your last sentence proves again all the Whitehall stuffed shirts makes a mockery of every dead Forces Personnel .
There's a thing called the Peter Principle where you promote a person to a position of uselessness and incompetency. Say your best Paramedic to a rota compiler. What a sad state of affairs.

 

[Dustydog]

5 live news said 1800. That's where the numbers came from.
Today the numbers have been refined. Frontline parademics reduced by 560 plus at least 340 support staff.
No doubt tomorrow the numbers will change again once Mr Andrew Lansley gets his story straight

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I believe it's a lot of political posturing DD, the same as the police are doing.
When I was with the service I could have trimmed the numbers of staff and that was just from Herefordshire. This wasn't even looking at Worcestershire who we were joined with. Now they are all part of the West Midlands ambulance service and I'm told by ex colleagues that things haven't changed. Due to Labours implementation of minimum response times the staff at our station has risen by 50% since I left. The point is staff aren't used to the best of their ability, out on the road where they belong. For instance one paramedic I know now wears pips on his shoulder and spends most of the week inside doing the rota's, a job that a clerk should do.
Again, the station I was at has two officers of the same rank who do nothing out on the road and work Monday to Friday, 9 to 5

Another example is if there's an incident that they cannot respond to if busy they will turn out the helicopter, even for something like a sprained wrist, so as not to feel the wrath of having a belated response time and finishing at the bottom of the table.
When I was still with the service a doctor wanted an old boy who lived out in the sticks transferring to Birmingham. Either because they had no available ambulance or they didn't want to lose a front line ambulance they sent the helicopter for him. The old boy was told to stand outside and wave something like a carrier bag so that they knew where to land. The authorities justify it by saying the cost comes from charities. Often if they don't have an ambulance available for a 999 call they will respond one from miles away knowing that they will never reach the scene before the other vehicle is clear. Having done this they haven't scored any black marks due to the ex governments league table. At one RTA I attended another ambulance turned up from Evesham, 46 miles away. Control had responded them because we hadn't cleared casualty with another patient but they forgot to stand the Evesham ambulance down once we came clear. I could write a book and this was then, now I'm told it's far worse and I had the best times

This government did say they were going to scrap these tables unless they just meant education.
Another example is the MOD. How can it be right that there are almost as many bureaucrats working at the MOD in Whitehall as there are fighting troops on the ground?