(UK) Ambulance services branded on brink of collapse

[CharlieH]

 

Ambulance services are under intense pressure, with record numbers of callouts and the most urgent, category-one, calls last month.

BBC Two's Newsnight programme spent from 08:00 to 20:00 on Monday at six hospitals with the longest delays handing patients over from paramedics to accident-and-emergency staff.

This should take 15 minutes or less - but crews often wait many hours and sometimes whole 12-hour shifts, with ambulances queuing outside unable to respond to other emergency calls.

 

Full Story

 

[bannork]

12 years of Tory rule and the UK is becoming Third World.

Food banks galore, weeks to see a doctor, criminal cases delayed for years, and fuel bills that will soon eat up half the pension of senior citizens.

What a mess 

[baboon]

43 minutes ago, bannork said:

12 years of Tory rule and the UK is becoming Third World.

Food banks galore, weeks to see a doctor, criminal cases delayed for years, and fuel bills that will soon eat up half the pension of senior citizens.

What a mess 

Let's wait to hear that this is the fault of the party not in government and what about Diane Abbott...

[blazes]

17 hours ago, bannork said:

12 years of Tory rule and the UK is becoming Third World.

Food banks galore, weeks to see a doctor, criminal cases delayed for years, and fuel bills that will soon eat up half the pension of senior citizens.

What a mess 

These exact same words can be applied to Canada, ruled by a sort of "progressive" party "led" by perhaps the world's most smug, arrogant Prime Minister. 

[steve187]

I would think a lot of the ambulances are tied up doing house calls in place of the GP's who don't do it anymore, in fact the GP's don't like to see sick people anymore, but like the money they get for having the same people on their books

[RichardColeman]

20 hours ago, bannork said:

12 years of Tory rule and the UK is becoming Third World.

Food banks galore, weeks to see a doctor, criminal cases delayed for years, and fuel bills that will soon eat up half the pension of senior citizens.

What a mess 

OK, and exactly how much of this is down to Covid, the restarting of the economy, Putin, etc ? 

 

Personally I think the Tories were getting back on track until covid and putin. Imagine all the covid money put into the NHS and court system and not on the disease ? Imagine no war in Ukraine - bills would still go up, but not as much. Only people I ever knew using food banks were those smoking and drinking and watching netflix !

 

[JonnyF]

The NHS is a complete mess despite the huge amounts of money thrown at it by the Tories since Brexit.

 

It needs a change of culture and a change of management. I personally know an accountant who works for the NHS and his perks, holidays, salary etc. are unreal. He just traded his Porsche for an 80k Audi. Top bloke though.

 

Nurses rushed off their feet but still have time for synchronized TikTok videos. A culture of bossing patients around and still acting like some kind of saviour. It's a disgrace and has been for around 25 years. Some great individuals but the culture needs to change. 

 

[Sharp]

NUFF SAID!

[transam]

21 hours ago, bannork said:

12 years of Tory rule and the UK is becoming Third World.

Food banks galore, weeks to see a doctor, criminal cases delayed for years, and fuel bills that will soon eat up half the pension of senior citizens.

What a mess 

Hmmm, the UK ambulance service is not a pickup wiv flashing lights, it has highly trained staff, in a high-tech fitted out ambulance that to put together costs.

 

Food banks galore, don't be silly..

 

If the UK has a lot of crims to deal with, and folk earning lots of dosh to get them off, what do you expect.

 

Fuel bills, is the UK the only one having the problem, no...

 

Is your rant socialist bias, well, yes, but you forget, socialists have been in power just 30 of the last 120 years, they always get kicked out, now why is that, I wonder......????

 

[VocalNeal]

21 hours ago, bannork said:

12 years of Tory rule and the UK is becoming Third World.

Food banks galore, weeks to see a doctor, criminal cases delayed for years, and fuel bills that will soon eat up half the pension of senior citizens.

What a mess 

Not necessarily Tory rule. Simply an increase in, and aging, population and frivolous use (by the public)  of emergency services. 

Edited July 16, 2022 by VocalNeal

[mikeymike100]

32 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

The NHS is a complete mess despite the huge amounts of money thrown at it by the Tories since Brexit.

 

It needs a change of culture and a change of management. I personally know an accountant who works for the NHS and his perks, holidays, salary etc. are unreal. He just traded his Porsche for an 80k Audi. Top bloke though.

 

Nurses rushed off their feet but still have time for synchronized TikTok videos. A culture of bossing patients around and still acting like some kind of saviour. It's a disgrace and has been for around 25 years. Some great individuals but the culture needs to change. 

 

Correct, the NHS is top heavy, what with the NHS's diversity tsar who is paid £35,000 more than its chief executive with her £230,000 salary!

[roquefort]

22 hours ago, baboon said:

Let's wait to hear that this is the fault of the party not in government and what about Diane Abbott...

Are you seriously suggesting we would not be in this mess if Diane Abbott had been in charge?

[baboon]

2 minutes ago, roquefort said:

Are you seriously suggesting we would not be in this mess if Diane Abbott had been in charge?

A counterfactual argument not worth engaging in.

[Thingamabob]

There are socialist elements in the NHS, the Police, the civil service and in iocal government who hate the UK and want to bring it down. The way the ambulance service is being run is just a tip if the iceberg. 

[Chomper Higgot]

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

OK, and exactly how much of this is down to Covid, the restarting of the economy, Putin, etc ? 

 

Personally I think the Tories were getting back on track until covid and putin. Imagine all the covid money put into the NHS and court system and not on the disease ? Imagine no war in Ukraine - bills would still go up, but not as much. Only people I ever knew using food banks were those smoking and drinking and watching netflix !

 

I volunteer at a good bank twice a week.

 

Your ‘Only people I ever knew using food banks were those smoking and drinking and watching netflix !’ is very wide of the face to face experience I have.

 

 

[RayC]

7 hours ago, JonnyF said:

The NHS is a complete mess despite the huge amounts of money thrown at it by the Tories since Brexit.

 

It needs a change of culture and a change of management. I personally know an accountant who works for the NHS and his perks, holidays, salary etc. are unreal. He just traded his Porsche for an 80k Audi. Top bloke though.

 

Nurses rushed off their feet but still have time for synchronized TikTok videos. A culture of bossing patients around and still acting like some kind of saviour. It's a disgrace and has been for around 25 years. Some great individuals but the culture needs to change. 

 

For once I agree with you. As you say, the NHS is a complete mess and a change in culture is needed.

 

Questions are, what is the government's strategy to deal with this and when will it initiate policies to effect these changes?

[dancarl]

Exactly totally agree with you on that and who changed GP contracts for the worse of the general public? Tony Blair and Labour. 
I was a Paramedic for 40 years retired in 2018.  Average waiting time pre Covid anything up to 3 hours before hand over.  When I first started call delays before allocation were up to 1 hour in early 80s. And I’ve worked I worked in London and 5 county services. NHS. Is a shadow of its former self. Mainly I believe because of Trust status. 

[Chomper Higgot]

13 minutes ago, RayC said:

For once I agree with you. As you say, the NHS is a complete mess and a change in culture is needed.

 

Questions are, what is the government's strategy to deal with this and when will it initiate policies to effect these changes?

Plus, after 12 years in power why haven’t the alleged problems of the NHS already been sorted?

 

 

[goldenbrwn1]

It doesn’t matter who is in power the NHS is managed by greedy corrupt idiots. Same headlines every year, covid or not.  I was recently at the Bristol Royal Infirmary waiting for a friend who was having a check over after collapsing at (walking) football.  Talking to a group outside on their break, 2 security guards and 3 nurses was an eye opener.   They said the amount of money wasted is atrocious. As an example they pointed to 4 guys sat on chairs at the ambulance entrance and exits points.  These guys are on minimum wage  basically counting how many times an ambulance leaves and returns.  The agency is paid £70,000 a year for each employee……

[baboon]

5 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I volunteer at a good bank twice a week.

 

Your ‘Only people I ever knew using food banks were those smoking and drinking and watching netflix !’ is very wide of the face to face experience I have.

 

 

Isn't it true that there are now more food banks than branches of McDonald's? 

[Excel]

56 minutes ago, baboon said:

Isn't it true that there are now more food banks than branches of McDonald's? 

Not quite

 

In May 2022, the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) surveyed 101 of its organisations representing 194 independent food banks across 94 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8585/#:~:text=In May 2022%2C the Independent,since the start of 2022.

 

How many McDonald's locations are there in the United Kingdom in 2022? There are 1,364 McDonald's locations in the United Kingdom as of June 24, 2022

https://www.scrapehero.com/location-reports/McDonald's-UK/#:~:text=How many McDonald's locations are,McDonald's locations in the UK.

[VocalNeal]

Has anyone pointed out to the naysayers that the UK doesn't actually have an ambulance service? 

There are a minimum of 10 individual services none of them covering the whole of the UK. 

I suspect if one lives in rural Oxfordshire and called an ambulance, it would arrive as usual and everything would be handled as usual.????

 

[CharlieH]

Multiple off topic remarks and responses removed.

[CharlieH]

There has been a rise in the number of people dying while waiting for an ambulance in the West Midlands, data reveals.

Figures for the period March to May this year showed 38 died compared to just two in the same months in 2021.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-62178695

[bannork]

A long queue of people  waiting outside for A&E treatment at Northampton Hospital yesterday.

[Excel]

1 minute ago, bannork said:

A long queue of people  waiting outside for A&E treatment at Northampton Hospital yesterday.

With the Amber weather warnings forecast to begin at midnight sat/sun then even just before on the Saturday  it looks like the advice of keeping out of the sun was not observed much. No shade or shelter maybe, but no one wearing a hat or using an umbrella to shield themselves either.

[RayC]

4 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Has anyone pointed out to the naysayers that the UK doesn't actually have an ambulance service? 

There are a minimum of 10 individual services none of them covering the whole of the UK. 

I suspect if one lives in rural Oxfordshire and called an ambulance, it would arrive as usual and everything would be handled as usual.????

 

You're right about regional variations but it's still not a pretty picture anywhere and things are getting worse across the board

 

https://www.nhsconfed.org/articles/what-latest-data-tell-us-about-ambulance-handover-delays

 

https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/ambulance-response-times#about-this-data

 

 

[RayC]

4 hours ago, JonnyF said:

Dianne would have sorted this immediately. Just employ a million doctors at the total cost of 100 million pounds per year.

 

Jobs a good un. The only thing left to worry about is putting the left shoe on the left foot and a matching right shoe on the right foot. Tough, but doable.

 

Once that's done, a quick train ride to visit your privately educated,  nurse assaulting son in jail, don't forget the booze to illegaly consume on the way.

 

Gotta love her.  Keeping the Tories in power one gaff at a time. 

 

Tory supporters only defence against the charge that the NHS has deteriorated progressively under their watch is to mock Diane Abbott. Says it all.

[Stupooey]

21 hours ago, dancarl said:

Exactly totally agree with you on that and who changed GP contracts for the worse of the general public? Tony Blair and Labour. 
I was a Paramedic for 40 years retired in 2018.  Average waiting time pre Covid anything up to 3 hours before hand over.  When I first started call delays before allocation were up to 1 hour in early 80s. And I’ve worked I worked in London and 5 county services. NHS. Is a shadow of its former self. Mainly I believe because of Trust status. 

You are very quick to lay blame on Tony Blair and Labour, but then attribute the deterioration of the NHS on Trust status, the brainchild of Thatcher and the Tories. A hint of political bias, maybe?

[TorquayFan]

Thanks for posting that Charlie. Bravo for the BBC just discovering this scandal LOL

 

The terrible thing is that in many places this is a very longstanding situation. Specifically, a Friend working ambulances in the South West reported 6 months ago that frequently he was sitting outside Derriford at Plymouth for the whole of his 12 hour shift with a Patient in the back just waiting. The Royal Cornwall at Truro is apparently not much better.

 

What a cock up ! What a scandal !