New Job!

[Pat g]

Yes, disgraceful is'nt it Steve. Anyone found guilty of assaulting a member of the NHS be it Nurse,Paramedic or whatever should have any benefits of treatment removed for life. End of no arguments!. Come on Britain. Man up for heavens sake
ATB,
Pat

[eboswan]

if your drunk and incapable (which is all your own doing anyway) and you need medical assistance there should be a standard charge lets say £80 quid.
my neighbour is a paramedic and she is so fed up off her job she is thinking about quitting.
if you attack a member of the staff it should be a £5000 pound fine and if you cant afford too pay (even though you can afford too get hammered and act like a dick) you should be made too work that fine off cleaning wards etc etc

[Geordie]

I was in the RVI (one of our local hospitals) earlier in the week. It was a very unpleasant few days, not because I was ill, just the state of the place! Hospitals were serene places once upon a time, that sadly isn't the case any more. Out of six of us on a filthy triage ward, there were only two of us who were in there for genuine illnesses, the other four were there for alcohol related issues.

People shouting and screaming, kick offs with members of staff, it was bloody awful tbh. I'd rather die at home thanks.

[Katzenjammer]

.

[Kwaka]

Sorry Kwaka we have kind of hijacked the thread but I think it demonstrates the esteem in which people like yourself, nurses and doctors are held and we decent people don't like to see our National Health staff abused by drunks and druggies and suchlike.

It's okay Steve

Firstly thanks for all the kind messages, it's going to be a bit of a steep learning curve, but it's something I've been working for, for three years and it has finally worked out.

Secondly, from a person who spent 13 months off work and needed reconstructive surgery and physio on my shoulder, following being assaulted by a patient that was drunk and high on cocaine, I understand what is going on out there. There is a complete lack of respect from certain people who expect that the public services are there for their beck and call and expect me to be some kind of servant. They also seem to know how to do my job better than I do; you know the one who went to University for 2 years!

People have forgotten (or not been taught) how to look after themselves and take responsibility for their own health. A colleague attended a patient in the night that came through as a red call (high priority 8 minute response required) breathing problem. When they got there the patient had a blocked nose and could not sleep properly! He was educated about using the service appropriately.

Friday, Saturday night drunks clog up A&E's and waste NHS funds. It is however not just the alcohol related problems, frequent caller patients also waste service time and money; it can be that we attend the same person several times a week for the same problem or even several times a day. Due to the risk averse nature of the NHS and the prevalence of no win no fee solicitors and peoples's willingness to drop the "i'll sue you" line, this situation just escalates.

111 and GP out of hours services are patchy at best and the general public, either don't trust it or can't be bothered with it. So I end up blue lighting to problems that should be sorted out by a GP.

It used to be that a job in the service was a job for life. New members starting the job, twenty years my junior, are telling me that they think that they don't believe that the job is any more than a ten to fifteen year employment now due to the pressures of work and the stresses and strains.

That all said, I love being a paramedic, the feeling you get when you help a genuinely ill patient is a reward in itself, but the situation that we have is unsustainable.

Sorry guys Rant Over!