Gallows Humour

Now that I've got the rant out the way, back to the real business of ambulance work. For some reason (ahem), I seem to have a bit of a reputation as a "Jonah". Those of you outside of the world of the ambulance service, it just means that I attract trouble. Not necessarily in the form of violence or such like, but just "real" jobs. Very sick people. Now, having said that, I don't seem to get many trauma related calls, but usually a lot of medically ill people. My second day back at work, 10 minutes into the shift, we were given a call to a male fallen from a bridge. Normally that tends to mean dead. We arrived on scene (which was literally 50 metres from the nearest ambulance station - but there was no-one there), looked over the bridge, saw the 12-15metre drop onto tarmac and assumed that our first thought was correct. The patient was dead. Except that on an immediate second look we saw that the two (yes, two) first responders were actually working. And not doing CPR. That means the patient was alive. So I ran (doesn't often happen) down the flight of about 50 stairs while my crew mate found a route round into this car park to get the ambulance as near as possible. The patient was obviously badly injured, unconscious, but very much alive. All that had to be done was done, patient intubated, fluids, defib pads attached in case, packaged, in the back of the back of the ambulance, applied lots of diesel and blued to hospital. In the meantime we requested HEMS (the helicopter that's supposed to be for just such calls) but as usual when I ask for it, it was unavailable. A policewoman came with us in the back to the hospital and kept repeating "I could never do your job". Ditto. Couldn't do hers either. She just couldn't understand how we could deal with our job day in, day out. Far from there being a sombre mood on route to hospital, it was almost jovial. Gallows humour. That sense of "if you don't laugh, you cry, and you can't keep crying in this job". Finally a job I could get my teeth into. A job where I could use some of the skills that I was trained for. For the general public I guess it would be better if I never had to use these skills, but for me it's just a good day at the office.
It was one of those days. Lots of running around for genuinely ill patients. Jonah. My crew mate threatened not to come back again. He did.

Back to work

Once again, it's been a fair old while since I posted anything. I've had a couple of weeks off work, which I thought would be a good break, even though I didn't go anywhere. The fact that the kids saw this as a sign of weakness and decided to make sure they were sick for the whole of the first week, is besides the point. Good thing that we had the snow to cheer everyone up...
While I was off, politics at work continued, moans continued, ORCON continued to plummet, overtime was still discontinued, and in general the state of the LAS seemed to be in disarray. Part of the solution was to man more cars. Not actual (patient transporting) ambulances. This way the ORCON targets will be met, if not the needs of the patients. Apparently there was a survey done amongst the general London public, in which the top of their wish list when it came to ambulances was that there was a VEHICLE on scene quickly. Not an ambulance. I get the feeling that this is a slight deviation from the actual point. Joe Public doesn't want a vehicle. He would never even use the term vehicle. He wants an AMBULANCE. The thing that takes him to hospital because he/she/nan/kiddy is sick. He doesn't want a car. How many times have I been asked "How are you going to put the stretcher in the back of that?", only to have to explain that I'm only the initial responder. The cavalry is on it's way. Cars are NOT the answer.
Nevertheless, the day I came back was the day that some bright spark with lots of things on their shoulders finally realised the fact that the service, as has been the case probably forever, can't run without overtime. So they brought it back. Albeit limited. I wonder if this will work. They took the overtime away at a time where not only was it critical for the performance figures of the LAS, but also for many of the staff. The Christmas/New Year time of the year is usually the most expensive and many staff rely on this overtime. So many of them were, to say the least, upset. I wonder just how many people have realised that they can actually function without the overtime, leaving the firm short anyway. I wonder how many bullet holes there are in the feet of senior management. Glad I don't have to do their job, that's for sure. Roll on the new financial year...