Have a bitch Procedures are more important than lives

[Cougar377]

Just before the wife finished her late shift at the surgery she works at she answered the phone to woman who, initially she thought was drunk, but she soon discovered had overdosed on painkillers and downed the best part of a bottle of gin.
The woman was struggling to stay awake and the wife was desperately trying to keep her alert. During the conversation she told the wife that she was self harming and wanted to die due to the levels of pain from arthritis that she suffers with.
A practice nurse, who happened to be stood behind her, heard the conversation and phoned for an ambulance while the wife tried to keep this woman awake and stop her self harming.
While talking to this woman she could also hear the exchange between the nurse and the ambulance controller.
The gist of it was that they wanted the woman's number to speak to her directly to assess how they were going to triage her. The practice nurse spent several minutes in heated conversation trying to persuade this controller that the patient had overdosed, was self harming and apparently slipping in and out of consciousness and that they needed to get a response unit out to her ASAP.
The controller kept quoting procedure to the nurse and she eventually slammed the phone down. She then went to her office and made another call which resulted in a paramedic team being dispatched.
Meanwhile the wife was still trying to keep this woman going.
Ultimately she spent over half an hour on the phone with the woman before hearing her drop the phone and stop talking to her. Shortly after that she heard the paramedics arrive and the sounds of them trying to get her to respond. She then ended the call.
Needless to say, she's pretty upset and I pulled my night-shift to spend the evening at home with her.

 

[ogr1]

Then, report the fat controller to her own superiors and quote her own protocol
and procedures and not to mention 'duty
of care' as a professional nurse.

 

[Cougar377]

Then, report the fat controller to her own superiors and quote her own protocol
and procedures and not to mention 'duty
of care' as a professional nurse.

A complaint is being actioned today.

 

[Jaws]

Some of those who are employed as controllers are wonderful..
They are damned good at their job and worth their weight in gold
Sadly there are also a lot who are totally brainless, and unable to think for them selves
As far as I can work out they are not heartless or even mildly bad people, they are just none too bright and driven in main by a fear of loosing their job as they did not follow the cheat sheet to the letter..
Of course it does not help that those same folk will invariably get moved UP the ladder rather than down, so we end up with line managers who always follow a script ( which is very often flawed ) and things rarely improve because of that

 

[Squag1]

Repeat - The Peter Principle

 

[Pow-Lo]

I was on the phone to a 999 call handler in January last year. Long story short, Ma P left the house five minutes before me just before 6 in the morning and found a collapsed kid on the pavement and I appeared a few minutes later on my way to the gym. My mum had called 999 and an ambulance was apparently on the way. I found the kid's pulse, which was weak, and he was just about breathing. He started to regain consciousness by which time mum had passed the phone to me. I advised the call handler what was happening and she told me to roll him over onto his back and I refused (I am not a doctor, nor am I a medical professional. However, I am trained to a higher degree than most non-professionals with the exception of the likes of St. John's Ambulance). She insisted I roll him onto his back and my captain's head kicked in; I told her it flew in the face of every aspect of training I'd ever undertaken and no way was I rolling a semi-conscious kid onto his back. She again insisted and I asked her what should I do if he throws up. She didn't respond and I left him in the recovery position.

I got bored of waiting for the ambulance and he eventually came around. I went back to mum's, got the car key and took him home myself. Turns out he went out on the piss the night before, hit his head and didn't remember much else.

Another reason I do not subscribe to the hero worship of the NHS.

 

[Lee337]

Without going in to too much detail (and nothing to do with the NHS) I got promoted a number of years ago. I had to deal with two rather unpleasant situations within my 11 month role as a manager, on neither occasion did I follow procedure, choosing instead to stand up for my team against senior managers when the procedure changed to the detriment of the team.

Needless to say, I was very quickly busted back down a grade again.

I had the pleasure of speaking to one of my old managers a while back who recently retired. It turns out not only did I not follow the new procedure, I wasn't a 'Yes' man - I substituted the phrase 'How high?' for 'for what reason?' once too often.

It seems the bigger the organisation you work for, especially in the service of the public, the less independent thought is tolerated.

Personally, I have a lot of respect for NHS front line workers, it's the management I think needs a good seeing to.

 

[ogr1]

I was on the phone to a 999 call handler in January last year. Long story short, Ma P left the house five minutes before me just before 6 in the morning and found a collapsed kid on the pavement and I appeared a few minutes later on my way to the gym. My mum had called 999 and an ambulance was apparently on the way. I found the kid's pulse, which was weak, and he was just about breathing. He started to regain consciousness by which time mum had passed the phone to me. I advised the call handler what was happening and she told me to roll him over onto his back and I refused (I am not a doctor, nor am I a medical professional. However, I am trained to a higher degree than most non-professionals with the exception of the likes of St. John's Ambulance). She insisted I roll him onto his back and my captain's head kicked in; I told her it flew in the face of every aspect of training I'd ever undertaken and no way was I rolling a semi-conscious kid onto his back. She again insisted and I asked her what should I do if he throws up. She didn't respond and I left him in the recovery position.

I got bored of waiting for the ambulance and he eventually came around. I went back to mum's, got the car key and took him home myself. Turns out he went out on the piss the night before, hit his head and didn't remember much else.

Another reason I do not subscribe to the hero worship of the NHS.

Sounds like she expected you to do cpr?

 

[Pow-Lo]

Sounds like she expected you to do cpr?

If she did, she’s even more dumb than I gave her credit for. Why would I give CPR to someone who’s breathing and has a pulse?

 

[ogr1]

If she did, she’s even more dumb than I gave her credit for. Why would I give CPR to someone who’s breathing and has a pulse?

A keyboard warrior?

 

[Lee337]

I was on the phone to a 999 call handler in January last year. Long story short, Ma P left the house five minutes before me just before 6 in the morning and found a collapsed kid on the pavement and I appeared a few minutes later on my way to the gym. My mum had called 999 and an ambulance was apparently on the way. I found the kid's pulse, which was weak, and he was just about breathing. He started to regain consciousness by which time mum had passed the phone to me. I advised the call handler what was happening and she told me to roll him over onto his back and I refused (I am not a doctor, nor am I a medical professional. However, I am trained to a higher degree than most non-professionals with the exception of the likes of St. John's Ambulance). She insisted I roll him onto his back and my captain's head kicked in; I told her it flew in the face of every aspect of training I'd ever undertaken and no way was I rolling a semi-conscious kid onto his back. She again insisted and I asked her what should I do if he throws up. She didn't respond and I left him in the recovery position.

I got bored of waiting for the ambulance and he eventually came around. I went back to mum's, got the car key and took him home myself. Turns out he went out on the piss the night before, hit his head and didn't remember much else.

Another reason I do not subscribe to the hero worship of the NHS.

I did a Bikerdown course 2 years ago (which reminds me, I think I'll book a refresher later this year) and I know about not turning over a casualty on to their back. I always thought if they're breathing leave then in the recovery position and only turn them on to their back IF CPR is needed.

Not that I ever want to have to use any miniscule knowledge I have of basic first aid...

 

[Malone]

Last december I managed to tear my hamstring, I’m getting old and things are almost all worn out, and was in so much pain I called for an ambulance. I was transferred to 3 different call handlers, each asking the same off a script, finally I was transferred to someone more local. No, I can’t drive, no-one here to drive me either, it’s about 5am or so. He suggested that as the pain was subsiding somewhat for me to call my GP as he had 185 urgent cases all in need of an ambulance. I clenched my teeth and stayed home as if I’d waited it would be a long long time before collection, then I’d end up waiting in triage, and then I’d catch covid. So I called the doc, urgently, and got a call back very quickly, and was then advised I had the correct meds at home prescribed for something else - take them, you will feel a lot better.

I did, and I still do, but while my leg is fine now it was horrendous for a couple of weeks.

I couldn’t do the job as a call handler, it’s quite clearly very difficult and every now and again they will get it wrong.

 

[Bluelagoona]

I see it every night where a night controller is faced with making a decision as to what to do in an emergency situation.
No manager will answer a phone after 10pm but will come in in the morning and question the controllers decision with the benifit of hindsight.
In order not to get bollocked some will follow proceedure .... some will use common sense and accept the consequences.
I have no doubt the same principal applies in the NHS.

 

[derek kelly]

Talking of flouting procedure, a number of years ago I trained as a hostage negotiator, it was a very intense course, you work in a three man team, one at the door, one taking notes & one as a runner, the golden rule that was hammered into us was never be at the door longer than 20 minutes & once each member of the team had been at the door you withdrew & another team took over.
One evening I got the dreaded call, a female colleague had been dragged into a cell, when I got there another team were in attendance with a particular colleague at the door, this was around 8pm, the next morning it was decided that a c&r team would force into the cell & the rest of us had to make as much noise as possible as a distraction, the tactic worked however when I asked why the same guy had remained at the door all night I was told “because he built up a rapport with the perpetrator” heads should have rolled over that but all managers were patting themselves on the back, one particular Governor wandered into the area & that is an absolute no no, a P O told him in no uncertain terms if he didn’t remove himself he would knock him out.

 

[JayTee]

In the winter of 2017 the wife came down with sepsis caused by a bout of cellulitis that was in its early stages and not symptomatic, she had suffered sepsis before three times and I had begun to recognise the signs which in her case always manifested itself initially as confusion, belligerence, and really foul language all of which was entirely out of character.
Phoned 999 and requested a ambulance and had to go through the tick box question and answer session despite explaining I was a St Johns first responder and this had happened before and she needed prompt treatment with introveinous antibiotics, the lady on the other end insisted I put her through the procedure for stroke diagnosis, this was impossible with Lyn being entirely uncooperative so I went outside where Lyn couldn’t be heard and basically lied to the extent that an ambulance was sent with three paramedics, on examination I told the guys what had happened and was told “Don’t worry mate she’s ticked all the boxes for sepsis you’ve done the right thing”, all this happening with Lyn out of her box uncooperative and swearing like father Jack of Craggy island.
I guess this problem may stem from fckwits asking for ambulances when they’ve broken a fingernail or lost a tooth in a drunken brawl but the procedure while providing information to the handler certainly doesn’t help those involved in a real emergency who don’t abuse the service.

 

[Pow-Lo]

I did a Bikerdown course 2 years ago (which reminds me, I think I'll book a refresher later this year) and I know about not turning over a casualty on to their back. I always thought if they're breathing leave then in the recovery position and only turn them on to their back IF CPR is needed.

Not that I ever want to have to use any miniscule knowledge I have of basic first aid...

Absolutely spot on. As far as I concerned, the woman was an idiot. I really hope the call was recorded and later played back for ‘training purposes’ because she most definitely needs training!

 

[Pow-Lo]

Talking of flouting procedure, a number of years ago I trained as a hostage negotiator, it was a very intense course, you work in a three man team, one at the door, one taking notes & one as a runner, the golden rule that was hammered into us was never be at the door longer than 20 minutes & once each member of the team had been at the door you withdrew & another team took over.
One evening I got the dreaded call, a female colleague had been dragged into a cell, when I got there another team were in attendance with a particular colleague at the door, this was around 8pm, the next morning it was decided that a c&r team would force into the cell & the rest of us had to make as much noise as possible as a distraction, the tactic worked however when I asked why the same guy had remained at the door all night I was told “because he built up a rapport with the perpetrator” heads should have rolled over that but all managers were patting themselves on the back, one particular Governor wandered into the area & that is an absolute no no, a P O told him in no uncertain terms if he didn’t remove himself he would knock him out.

Did she have big tits?

 

[derek kelly]

Did she have big tits?

No but this incident totally screwed her life up, she didn’t receive a payout as they deemed it her fault for going to his cell alone.

 

[Pow-Lo]

No but this incident totally screwed her life up, she didn’t receive a payout as they deemed it her fault for going to his cell alone.

Screwed her life up? Was she injured? And was it REALLY her fault or did someone slope their shoulders?

 

[derek kelly]

It finished her career in the service, she dare not leave her house for a number of years & is apparently still jumpy, sadly it has to be said that it was her own fault as she went to his cell alone, she thought she could trust him as she was working with him on his offender treatment programme & had a good rapport with him, sadly people are still going to prisoners doors alone, lessons to be learned often aren’t.