frontline health service cuts

StevieJ

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Many people have left the health services purely to do agency work. As the pay rates are better. Work less hours for same pay. Particularly good if you do the shifts no one else wants to cover.

Pardon! and miss out on those outrageous pensions :eek:

ninky_2

Wookster wrote: »

One of my uncles works as a consultant in a busy A & E department in London.

He says that the ambulance service gets dozens of calls to take people to the hospital because they need a haircut or because they need to get to nearby shops.

Such spurious call outs need to be charged out at a reasonable rate to discourage people from using the service frivolously.

yes clearly the ambulance service is way overstaffed. it's just the haircut scroungers putting unnecessary pressure on the service. let's cut back on paramedics.

duh.

Really2

ninky wrote: »

yes clearly the ambulance service is way overstaffed. it's just the haircut scroungers putting unnecessary pressure on the service. let's cut back on paramedics.

duh.

Are call handlers not frontline?

ninky_2

Really2 wrote: »

Are call handlers not frontline?

yes. let's cut back on them too.

abaxas

Dont forget that lots of people use the Ambulance service as taxis. Why get the bus when you can fake injury and get a free ride.

This is especially true for hospital appointments.

ninky_2

abaxas wrote: »

Dont forget that lots of people use the Ambulance service as taxis. Why get the bus when you can fake injury and get a free ride.

This is especially true for hospital appointments.

don't forget when people use an ambulance they are ill.

i had to call an ambulance a while back for an asthma attack. for the first time i had pressure from the call centre as to whether i really needed an ambulance. now when you can't breathe properly and you don't know if you are going to get worse you are scared and you aren't thinking straight. to then feel pressure to assess whether you are really ill enough to need an ambulance doesn't really help.

the new guidelines suggest people with "non urgent breathing difficulties" will not be sent ambulances. that worries me. to my mind any breathing difficulty is pretty urgent.

abaxas

ninky wrote: »

don't forget when people use an ambulance they are ill.

i had to call an ambulance a while back for an asthma attack. for the first time i had pressure from the call centre as to whether i really needed an ambulance. now when you can't breathe properly and you don't know if you are going to get worse you are scared and you aren't thinking straight. to then feel pressure to assess whether you are really ill enough to need an ambulance doesn't really help.

the new guidelines suggest people with "non urgent breathing difficulties" will not be sent ambulances. that worries me. to my mind any breathing difficulty is pretty urgent.

Fully agree.

Just that there is a section of our country who just 'take the p1$$'.

They however are not as bad as the section that needs armed response to go with the medics. Back in 2001 (when I was involved with this) just over 100 people in Northumberland were on that list.

Jennifer_Jane

Doesn't the ambulance service use volunteers for the 'taxi' service to hospitals? Someone I know seems to make a small living doing this. He is entitled to claim for petrol but has an LPG car, so can manage to live on the difference. He takes mainly cancer patients and others who have regular appointments to various hospitals in Oxford, Cheltenham, etc.

ninky_2

abaxas wrote: »

Fully agree.

Just that there is a section of our country who just 'take the p1$$'.

They however are not as bad as the section that needs armed response to go with the medics. Back in 2001 (when I was involved with this) just over 100 people in Northumberland were on that list.

it's the !!!! that is often the problem. a shockingly high percentage of ambulance callouts and a and e admissions are alcohol related.

there's also the issue that when it's hard to get to see a gp more cases end up at a and e (either because they've progressed to a serious level or because that's the only way the person feels they will get medical attention).

ILW

What percentage of the ambulance service are frontline?