Eternal question raised in every restroom, every ambulance station every week: Why can’t we charge drunks for wasting time/ambulance time?
According to the think tank reporting today to the Government they think so.
Now it seems that this is to be a public debate although I notice the story in the Telegraph doesn’t include Ambulance but strictly a 999 call is emergency care even before the point it’s needed…i.e. it could have been emergency care for someone else who did need it and it wasted an emergency response.
I’m all for a sliding scale of charges based on number of trips to hospital /calls to Control for same person with same determined waste of time symptoms. Copy & Paste link below.
3 strikes and you’re charged. Simple.
I.S.A. Why The Private Ambulances Are Worried
I am proud to be the Chair of the UK Ambulance Sector Committee especially when recently the focus for campaigning has been the P.T.S. (outpatient) side of the Service who often have their issues overshadowed by E.M.S. (emergency) side.
The first big event was when myself and Sam (Oestreicher the Sector Secretary) were asked to give evidence to a parliamentary committee which explored the whole issue of privatisation from the patient perspective. We stressed to assorted M.P.’s that having P.T.S. services in house directly employed by the NHS was better for many reasons.
1.The staff are selected, recruited, checked and become NHS employees.
2.They quickly learn about patient care, patient needs and patient dignity.
3.When there has been a major incident they convey injured patients to hospital immediately, no head office checking the terms of the contract/service level agreement/ negotiating a day rate per patient with private accountants and managers, someone/anyone (Police, Fire, Ambulance) requests transport for walking wounded and quickly it appears.
4.There is clear seamless links with E.M.S. to assist and care if a patient is too unwell for a P.T.S. journey
5.Patient journeys are undertaken with the best needs of the patient as the primary focus not profit for the company.
Decisions made by Hospital Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities to award an NHS contract to “ferry in” outpatients to and from hospital appointments ( I hate that phrase it sounds faceless, inhuman and capatalist) are made for one reason only – to try and reduce the cost. There is an old saying about knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing (see point 3 above, on the 7th July 2005 in London following the bombings that killed 52 people over 300 were taken to hospital injured mostly by NHS PTS staff ).
No longer can the costs be guaranteed to be cheaper for the NHS by having a private ambulance company as a recent expose in the Sunday papers highlight.
The fraud was a systemic one not an individual one (although we hear of individuals in private ambulance companies creating the ability to skim off the top), the company defrauded the NHS in London of over £280,000 by creating a fictional driver and charging for journeys in an ambulance that didn’t exist driven by a person who didn’t exist (Stuart Villas…not the sort of name to “blend in” to the list).
We also have the expose that UNISON highlighted to the BBC regarding the “screening” of staff the private ambulance company sub-contracted to another company,where anything any standard was OK for some women and children in Birmingham to be “taken” to hospital or home by staff who had either worked 23 hours in a day non stop or just come out of prison from an 18 month sentence for a double assault.
Well it seems now that the “privates” are a bit worried about the setting up of the Independant Safeguarding Authority in 2010 where everyone who has contact with a patient will have to undergo an enhanced CRB check to get clearance to be on the big list of people (not convicted) who can work with children and vulnerable adults rather than the smaller list (convicted) of those who can’t.
It is the only thing about I.S.A. that has caught my interest (no serious pun intended) that whilst I do some research on the implementation of I.S.A. with colleagues and we have some concerns about doubling up of some registration, the fees and who pays, the right to a fair hearing for minor misdemeanors of yesteryear that may show up, as a citizen my concerns are miniscule compared to the fears of the private ambulance companies who now may have to “compete” on equal terms with the NHS.
“Over The Tannoy” Brandnames Mainstreaming Into Everydayuse
Just a quickie list y’know to be helpful of brandnames that have mainstreamed into everyday use
“Over the Tannoy” the best known (apart from the next one).. public address system /speakers/ announcement
“Do the Hoovering” – Hoover vacuum cleaners
Biro – pen
Sellotape – sticky backed plastic
Stanley Knife – craft knife
Coke – cola drink
Velcro – hook & loop fastener
Thermos – flask
Filofax -diary
Google -(to google something) internet search engine
JCB – mechanical digger
Optic – drink measure device
NYLON -man made fabric, big debate about origin of name ,does it really abbreviate New York, London?
Tippex – correction fluid
Squeezy -washing up liquid
Q-tips -cotton buds
Marigolds – rubber gloves
Bulldog Clip – stationary holder
Walkman – portable music player (Sony)
I-pod – mp3 player (Apple)
Band aid – sticking plaster
Bubble Wrap -air filled plastic
Chapstick – lip balm
Formica – laminate
Jacuzzi – hot tub
Jeep – General purpose vehicle (now generic for 4×4)
Jetski -Kawasaki stand up watercraft vehicle
Perspex -acrylic glass
Portakabin – temporary building
Rizla -cigarette paper
Music From A Dream
“Music From A Dream” is the title I’ve come up with for a piece of work I am working on. Like many people I’ve had the discussion about remembering dreams and if they are in colour or black and white, if they seem far away like on a screen or 3D style and you are witness to them or within them. There is this weird connotation with “hippy, trippy, new age” with dreams however it is something all of us do.
As Paramedics there are some calls/jobs that “come through the bedroom door” and haunt sleep or at the moment about to drop off through the sheepskin curtain an interruption of thought at that point can be a cruel bump back to the pain occasionally felt in this job, however long ago the call was. I’m convinced there is a “holy grail” collection of music heard or felt during dreams/sleep that bears little connection with favourite music or recorded music and when a captured segment or a split second of a piece of recorded music in awakeland can trigger a strange deja- vu memory which may be that one is composing original music to dream to/ dream by.
IMAGINE THERE’S NO BEATLES
See Wordplay Category for other JC contributions
IMAGINE THERE’S NO BEATLES
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Train Service Adds New Line 152 Years After It Already Had One
Today the frequency of train services between Cardiff and Merthyr increase to 2 trains each way per hour following years of neglect and the sixties decimation of Beeching’s “Future of The Railways” report. It’s only cost £23 million (original estimate £18.8 million) to put right, not bad considering that Isambard Kingdom Brunel built the lot for £190,649 in old money back in 1857 called it the Taff Vale Railway and it had two lines all the way. Still, that’s progress.
Save The Vulcan Pub
As soon as Kevin Dwyer (our branch internet expert) mentioned the Vulcan was in jeopardy he mobilised vast numbers of Ambulance signatures on the online peteition/Facebook/ letters to the editor etc to save this overlooked pub with a huge history that has always just been there (Adam St,Cardiff).
Well none other than Jeremy Vine popped in to pull a pint and chat with regulars to find out it’s fate and broadcasted the findings on his Radio 2 lunchtime show from Cardiff last week. It was pleasing to hear that Media students from the recently built Atrium faculty of the University of Glamorgan across the road have made the place their own and numbers of supporters are growing daily.
From an Ambulance 999 call point of view in my 20 odd year on the road answering shouts perspective (and I’ve checked with other colleagues) the main memory 999 wise from us is……NONE ……we never went there!
Even though it was on the route to or home from the actual city centre, there never seemed to be any trouble, fighting, incidents of any kind that stick in anyone’s mind. Remarkable really, maybe we should have our next Branch meeting there.
The web link is asking for web support from bloggers and I for one will be attending the next literary night (the Star Trek stuff’s not my thing). My mate Christian’s dad Peter Lewis has been skittling there and internationalling there for donkey’s ………..long may it not be another car park.
Tredegar NHS @ 60
Tredegar in South Wales is often considered the birth place of the NHS thanks to Aneurin Bevan (Nye) the architect of the scheme and Minister for Health in the Coalition government of 1948. What a story the build up to the setting up of the NHS was from the Tredegar Medical Aid Society which ensured workers and citizens could achieve health care by paying for it whilst they were well, in conjunction with the principles of the Welfare State becoming the greatest achievement not just of one man but any Government of the Twentieth century when the rest of us were "Tredegarised". A great account of the thoughts of Nye Bevan appear in his book "In Place Of Fear" published 1952 (reprinted 2008) especially Chapter 5 " A Free Health Service".
I was proud to be instrumental in Tredegar becoming the focus of the NHS @ 60 celebrations that took place on July 5th 2008. I was especially proud to have been nominated for an individual award from the Tredegar Town Council and here I am recieving an award ( or symbol of friendship) from the Mayor of Tredegar John Morgan with Dave Galligan the Head of Health who persuaded none other than the Health Minister Edwina Hart to unveil a jointly commissioned special stone erected and unveiled at the site of the Aneurin Bevan stones close to the town on the actual day the clock struck 60 years.
It is especially humbling to be invited to the actual building where Nye first took his seat on the Town Council and be allowed to sit there and just for a moment feel his presence, as you can see in the photograph a bronze bust overlooks the reminder we were a part of…one I'll never forget ,I have met such like minded friends there.
Hospital Acquired Infection Expert Wows on Canada Tour
Absolute expert on all things hospital acquired infection wise, friend of the Trade Unions, serious academic Senior Research fellow at Cardiff University and all round good guy Steve Davies is wowing them on his Canadian tour.
Asked to “dish the dirt” and tell it “warts n all” by the Canadian Public Service Union CUPE on the links with private companies cleaning hospitals and MRSA, C-Diff and all the other killer deseases Steve has concentrated his focus on frequency of cleaning in his whirlwind tour of Canada where health officials admit one person in every 8 or 9 dies in hospital because of an acquired infection. We in UNISON especially the Cymru/ Wales region are pretty au fait with the mantra that the links made in the in-depth research that UNISON sponsored between privatising and contracting out “hotel” services in hospitals and a rise in HAI’s are a little more connected than co-incidence. The Welsh Assembly Govt have announced that all cleaning contracts in Welsh hospitals are to be brought back in house for directly employed staff.
Sometimes it just needs someone with the integrity Steve has to make that message just a little more resonant.
He even recieved a standing ovation in Saskatchwan.
http://www.leaderpost.com/Health/Cleaning+essential+part+preventing+outbreaks/1590929/story.html
Welcome to my first blog
Hello and welcome to my first blog. I hope to post informed contributions and look forward to comments. I didn’t think social networking was for me watching many I know become addicted to them, secretly I am veering towards addiction to blogging as there are so many good ones. I intend to monopolise on the sensibility gained from being a member of a family within a community of a devolved country administration, working for the NHS, a union activist (UNISON) who has a few outside interests. The friends I have who blog have a huge appetite and stamina to get the relevant latest thing on any specific subject uploaded and online within minutes of us saying goodbye…..so it’s good that there are people like that. I considered for a moment one of those nom de plume/ alias/a.k.a.’s so prevalent with NHS bloggers however the ones I admire are instantly recognisable and reveal their identidy within 30 second trawl around their website.
Joseph Conaghan's Blog: JOE BLOGS 