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#1
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05-31-2011, 03:35 PM
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 My Rank: MAJOR Poster Rank:186 Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 8,081 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 42 Post(s)
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UK Boy Dies As Ambulance Takes Break
UK boy dies as ambulance crew takes break Ambulance chiefs apologized to the family and admitted the call took long to answer because crew was on a break By Paula Murray Sunday Express DUNDEE, Scotland — Grieving parents are demanding a public inquiry after their three-year-old son died while one ambulance crew took a tea break and another got lost trying to find their home. Martin and Lisa Gray battled to save their son Martyn as the paramedics took more than 45 minutes to respond to a 999 call. Ambulance chiefs last night apologized to the family and admitted the call took so long to answer because one crew based about 10 minutes away were on a break. The team that did respond got lost twice on the way to their home. Martyn awoke screaming in the night with blood in his mouth and then stopped breathing. Lisa, 32, said: "We will never know if it would have made a difference if they had got there in time. "We don't want to blame individuals because the rules say they are entitled to their break, that is what the law says. "We just think there should be proper local cover. If it was me and I got a call that said a three-year-old had stopped breathing I would just drop everything and go but I suppose they answer to a higher power. "The most angering thing we were told was that it was a holiday weekend and they were busy with the Royal Wedding. If they thought it was going to be busy, why were there not more staff on?" Martyn, of Drummond Castle, near Crieff, Perth and Kinross, had previously had surgery for a blood vessel problem called arterial vascular malfunction but was otherwise healthy. He was taken ill at 2:30am. The couple are awaiting the results of a post mortem examination to establish the cause of death of their adored son. Having called an ambulance to their home on another occasion, they knew the local Crieff unit could arrive in 10 minutes. As the crew was on a break, the nearest available team was dispatched from Stirling. Martin, 32, said: "I feel strongly that if the local crew are on a break there should be a back-up crew there to take over from them. "We would like a full public investigation of what happened so it doesn't happen again. "It won't bring Martyn back, but we wouldn't want anybody to suffer the same way." The couple have three other children, Chloe, 12, Luke, nine, and Caleb, six. The Scottish Ambulance Service said: "All NHS staff are entitled to an undisturbed break during their operational shift. "This can prove challenging in rural ambulance stations which operate with smaller pools of staff than urban stations." They get uninterrupted breaks? Crazy |
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#2
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05-31-2011, 06:45 PM
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 My Rank: LANCE CORPORAL Poster Rank:1800 Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 286 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 2 Post(s)
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Re: UK Boy Dies As Ambulance Takes Break
I think if you're on a shift and you are part of emergency personal, if you get a break you are to immediately resume work if you're called upon. If I were that family the devastation would be enough to make me sue the hell out of them.
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#3
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05-31-2011, 07:28 PM
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| My Rank: MAJOR Poster Rank:186 Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 8,081 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 42 Post(s)
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Re: UK Boy Dies As Ambulance Takes Break
I've ridden with many ambulances and none of them have a break period. You get a call, you go...doesn't matter what your doing. You stop and you go.
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#4
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05-31-2011, 08:46 PM
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 Australia Mate! Poster Rank:339 I have a map of Tasmania Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 3,720 Mentioned: 1 Post(s) Quoted: 86 Post(s)
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Re: UK Boy Dies As Ambulance Takes Break
My hubby is a paramedic and, like you said above they do "drop and go", there is no such thing as "no that crew can't attend because they are on break". Sometimes they can be so busy they don't get a "break" all day, but when that happens they can claim for meal allowance on their pay sheet. Paramedics don't receive calls personally, it goes through a call centre and they are the ones that decide who goes where and whether or not the situation is an emergency etc, and the paramedics follow those decisions/instructions. So my guess is that those guys who were on a "break" probably didn't even know about the call, I am sure they wouldn't say "oh no we can't go to a child dying, we haven't finished our sandwich  "
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#6
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06-01-2011, 07:49 PM
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 My Rank: CORPORAL Poster Rank:1415 Female Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 414 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 44 Post(s)
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Re: UK Boy Dies As Ambulance Takes Break
Total BS I worked for the NHS in the catering dept and everyone on site had their breaks interrupted if a patient was in need of something from your dept, and you were the one who could fill that need. The union seems to be very strong in the maintenance, transport, ambulance depts but it does bugger all for any other dept. Hence they get protected breaks. |
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#7
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06-02-2011, 09:35 AM
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 ✝Mudderator from Hell✝ Poster Rank:10 e-mail Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 95,044
Contributions: 817
Mentioned: 472 Post(s) Quoted: 10089 Post(s)
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Re: UK Boy Dies As Ambulance Takes Break
What a load of bull. They're emergency personal and should act swift in case of an emergency. You don't see the fire dept. finishing their meal when a condo is on fire. Drop everything and go cause that's where you get paid for. |
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#8
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06-03-2011, 08:50 AM
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 My Rank: SERGEANT Poster Rank:1162 Male Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 548 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 10 Post(s)
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Re: UK Boy Dies As Ambulance Takes Break
Lol the fire department? The fire department get 3 calls or so a day! Nothing..the ambulance service get constant calls, working 12 hour shifts with a 15 minute break. Its not the fact that one team was on their break, its the team that got lost that are to blame. Why should every ambulance in the area come to you? Theres other ambulances and other emergencies.
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