A disabled woman had to call an ambulance from a hospital car park when staff refused to help her 200 yards into the building.Wha..?
She was rushed to A&E by her partner Nick Ault, 34, suffering from excruciating back pains but when the couple asked hospital staff to help her inside they were told to dial 999.I bet the paramedics were amused...not!
The couple from Shoeburyness in Essex had to wait in the hospital car park until paramedics arrived to help them into Southend Hospital.
Dr Caroline Howard, clinical director of A&E at Southend Hospital said staff on reception were not trained in helping patients.In other words: 'Not my job, mate, innit?'
She added: 'This is standard procedure. Our staff are not trained in pre-hospital care, that is what the ambulance service specialise in.'
'Additionally we have a set ratio of nursing staff in our A&E department and if any staff leave the department, it leaves us short to care for patients we have in our care.'And, if you leave them writhing in agony in the car park, you'll have more time for coffee and biscuits at the nurses station, won't you?
Via National Death Service.
5 comments:
This isn't really new, nearly 10 years ago my 14yr old son broke his leg, a neighbour helped him into my car and I drove him to a&e(it's only 10 minutes away), on arrival I went to ask for help getting him out of the car, I am slightly built, he was 6'2" weighed more than me and crying in pain, they refused any help and said I should have called an ambulance.
But leaving them waiting for 4 hours in the waiting room or twice as long in an ambulance or corridor (both don't count as A&E so don't bugger up targets) is OK. Where is the common humanity? A couple of porters and a wheelchair and job done in 5 minutes.
"staff on reception were not trained in helping patients."
So what the flying fuck are they trained for?
Therein lies the problem.
If a hospital-employed good samaritan tries to help, but (say) accidentally drops the patient, then according to notices in the A & E waiting room, many ambulance-chasing lawyers rub their hands with glee.
Do you expect easyJet booking staff to fly planes? NHS receptionists are clerks that book patients into the A&E system on arrival. (All of the performance data for targets - how long patients wait from arrival to beening seen, admitted or discharged - are derived from these systems). The staff are grade two clerical reception staff, not paramedics like ambulance crew. Clerks are not moving and handling trained. If you lift someone up and out of ignorance break their neck do you think the compensation lawyers will accept a "common humanity" defence?
Its not "jobsworth", its todays compensation-culture madness. Comes from a government of mainly lawyers.
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