Jeannie has now safely been packed off to Bath for the next couple of days until her return flight to Seattle.  It’s been an interesting couple of days being a tourist in my own town.  I’m hoping that I was a good enough host for Jeannie – living on my own I may have lost some of those essential social skills…

But I would just like to point out that this is my blog, and that when I ask a question I would like you to all agree with me thankyouverymuch.  I’d just like to state that I’ve learned a new definition for the word ‘sizing’, and that I’ve never had any problems with sleeping on unwashed new pillow cases.

To be honest, I reckon that my face contains more nasty stuff than any new bit of linen, and is as tough as old leather.

Back to reality/work in twenty two hours…

The answer to the previous post, barring any more moblogging bugger-ups...

Guess where we are...

I have several brand new pillow cases.

Jeannie wants to wash these *clean* pillow cases before they get used.

I think she is mad, she believes herself sane.

Votes in the comments please.

Feel free to vindicate my assessment of her mental health.

It’s strange, but given the amount of times that I’m in the Docklands area (normally picking up twenty-something traders with cocaine induced cardiac problems), I’ve never come across this rather astounding sculpture.

I think it is made from bedstead wires.

I would also suggest that everybody reading this should take a day out to play tourist in your own hometown.

Did you know that it is an impossibility for an American tourist to cross the Tower of London bridge at night in under an hour.  I think Jeannie managed to fill up the majority of her 1GB camera memory card with pictures of the tower, or corners of buildings.

London is lovely by night, so we did my favourite walk, which is along the South bank.

Today we attack Camden market…

I expect to spend most of today standing around waiting for Jeannie to finish trying on rings, while holding her coat.

So Jeannie and I have been roaming around London, and to the left you can see a picture of us outside the Tower of London.  It was the first time that I’d ever been on a London tour bus, and to be honest the experience wasn’t too bad.  I did of course annoy Jeannie by pointing out things that the recorded tour audio missed, and gave her little tit bits of information on various places and people.

There was a reasonable amount of drinking in London pubs.  As a ‘lightweight’ I stuck to the rather weak, but also tasty, John Smiths.  We met up with Mozrat (from IRC) and had a nice little meal in Paddington.

Another first was the little river cruise that we took.  I’ve lived in London all my life, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually been on the river Thames.  So a short trip up to Embankment was a pleasant change to the normal tube travel.

We had a little wander up to Leicester square, where we stumbled across the Premiere for ‘Serenity’. I think that I’ve mentioned before how much I love the TV series Firefly that has spawned this film.  So we stood around for a bit until some of the stars, and the writer turned up, and I snapped some pictures.

They all spent a great deal of time signing autographs and meeting the fans.  Joss Whedon is in an unusual position, there are few writers/directors who get their name so prominently on the movie poster.  The poster reads ‘A Joss Whedon Film’, which I think is a little unusual.

It also mentions that he was the creator of Buffy and Angel.

I can’t think of any other movie that mentions TV programmes on it’s poster.

Talking of the posters – the railings that we were standing behind had hardboard posters for the movie.  We liked them.  So did the couple who were standing next to us…

So after everyone had gone in, and after getting permission from the security people, I pulled out my penknife and got Jeannie, and the other couple some swag.

I don’t know how she is going to get it home though, as it is quite incapable of being folded…

 I like to think that Nathon Fillon and I look similar, after all we both play characters called Reynolds…

I often talk about ambulance Control, but although I’ve spent a shift up there, I don’t really know what it is like to work there full time.

But now I do.

Nee Naw is the blog of one of our Control staff.  If you like my blog (and you must if you are reading it), then you will also love this blog, as it shows exactly what it is like on the other side of the phone.

Go and read it now, then bookmark it/add it to your feed, and then you will truly know the idiots that we have to deal with…

Jeannie has landed safely and is, I suspect, planning to invade the UK, given the amount and weight of her luggage.

Why is it that men can travel in comfort with a shoulder bag, while women need two suitcases, a backpack and a huge carry bag?

Dr Charles writes a hounting account of a potential future that we are all dreading.

UPDATE:And this is why we are worrying.

From Warren Ellis – ‘ So how dead does this place get on a Sunday night?’

Well today (looks at his watch) yesterday was pretty much dead person day.

Two corpses, two nearly dead, and one about to die.

All in one shift.

I think my favourite was an elderly gentleman in a nursing home, who had real trouble with his breathing.  I asked the nurses there to sit him forward, so I could listen to his chest with my stethescope, and they replied, “How?”, and, “I don’t understand”.

I think I got a bit ‘shouty’ with them after that.

I’ll gloss over the way they opened the door for me, but then let me find the patient all on my own…

Posting will possibly be a bit light over the next few days, as Jeannie is coming over to stay from Seattle, so most of my time will be spent showing her around London.  I’m looking forward to it.

Then there will be drinks, feel free to turn up and say hello to a genuine American.

I walk into work at 6:15am, I've been awake since half past five - Well, I say awake - what I actually mean is that I am somehow moving around, and have managed to drive to work, my mind is still comfortably asleep in bed back home.

I start to check the equipment in my FRU, most of it is there, but I'm missing a few pieces of kit. Expensive pieces of kit, probably sitting on a vehicle elsewhere in our complex.

Then my phone goes off. "Hello", says Control, "We've got a cardiac arrest for you".

I jump in the car, check the address, then I see the age of the patient.

42.

Control has also sent a message that the patient's wife is doing CPR. This means that he might just have a chance of surviving this...

I race towards the address, it doesn't take long, although because of recent rainfall, I'm sliding all over the road.

It's only when I turn onto the road that I realise that I've been to this address before. I've spoken to this man previously, he seemed like a decent person. I know him.

I run in through the door, the hallway is clean but I can't see anyone, so I shout out.

"Up here", comes the cry of an obviously distressed woman.

"Sounds genuine", I thought.

So I bound up two flights of stairs and into the bedroom, where I see the wife performing pretty effective CPR on her dead husband.

She is crying.

I take over, connecting the patient to my monitor/defibrillator I see the patient's cardiac rhythm is Asystole - There is no activity in his heart at all.

Now comes the tricky part. I'm on my own, and there are a lot of things that I have to do very quickly.

I do fifteen chest compressions, this will hopefully get some oxygen to his essential internal organs. But to continue doing this I need to get his lungs full of air. So the next thing I do is connect up the 'ambu-bag' to my oxygen cylinder.

I tilt his head back and use the ambu-bag to inflate his lungs twice.

I start another fifteen chest compressions.

Downstairs I hear the crew entering the house.

"Top floor mate", I shout, "Job is as given".

When I say the 'job is as given', I mean that it was given to us as a cardiac arrest, and that it is indeed a cardiac arrest and not a faint/panic attack/cough or belly ache

It seemed like ages, but when I later check the times, the crew were less than two minutes behind me.

Three people come bounding up the stairs - the FRU from another station jumped into the back of the ambulance, he was waiting on station for the previous shift to return when the crew got the call.

I continue the chest compressions, one medic puts a breathing tube down the patient's windpipe. The other is getting access to a vein, so we can give essential medications. The last crewmember is doing the very important (but often underrated) job of looking after the wife.

After about nine minutes of this treatment, the rhythm on the heart monitor changes. It looks suspiciously like a decent heart beat.

I check for a pulse.

I find one!

The patient then spends the next couple of minutes (while we are preparing to move him) slipping in an out of either having a pulse, or having a 'shockable rhythm' which needs an electric shock to revert this back into a heart rhythm 'compatible with life'.

He ends up getting defibrillated twice before we can load him onto the carry chair, lug him down two flights of stairs and into the back of the ambulance.

We then find a member of the public upset that we are blocking his parking space. He is currently blocking the only exit that the ambulance has.

One of the crew has a word with him. She is much politer than I would have been.

He moves out of the way rather quickly.

As there are three crew in the ambulance, they don't need my help - so I follow behind them so that I can get my equipment back. By the time I reach the hospital the patient is being prepared for transport to the intensive care unit.

The wife gives the crew a hug, and sobs how grateful she is. Even the doctor at the hospital compliments us on a job well done.

But, failing a miracle, the patient will die, he was without oxygen for too long.

Once more it seems that we are just making time for the relatives to say goodbye. But for us it still seems like a success.

October the 1st, 2004.

We are now one year on from the implementation of Agenda for Change (AfC), and us EMTs still don't know what our new pay and conditions are going to be. The planning for AfC was started a year before this. So AfC has been with us for two years.

I think one of my commenters put it best when someone asked about AfC.

The pay rise announcement for paramedics, whilst being a significant rise, is not the great deal that it's been made out to be, with very little option for improving your pay based on skills and knowledge.

The rise for Technicians which is what you would be to start with if you joined the ambulance service, is still to be decided. The offer from management has been thrown out by the unions as it was utter rubbish, and it's now been referred to a national committee. If the rumours are true, and it seems that's the way it will be, techs will be placed in Band 4 of Agenda for Change, so while our gross annual salary will rise to just over £25k, our basic salary will effectively drop from £21,900 to around £19k, with the rest being made up from enhancements - unsocial hours payments, London allowance etc. We'll get time and a half for overtime, but that'll be based on the £19k basic. Plus band 4 doesn't recognise us doing ECGs, giving drugs and supervising trainees.

To put it into perspective - there are hospital cleaners that are going to be placed in band 4. Enough said?

Sorry to rant on but this A4C stuff, but it really annoys the Hell out of me!


For me, it's not about the money - it's about recognising us for the jobs we do and the skills that we have. We essentially work on our own, have to solve time-critical problems and give drugs that are normally only prescribed by doctors. We are at risk of being beaten up, we have to calm situations down, and maybe even be the first on scene at terrorist bombings.

Yet it seems that we are not recognised for this, instead our basic pay will drop, and the only way that we will make up the shortfall will be the new idea (for the ambulance service at least) that working rotating shifts should earn you a bit more money. The drop in basic pay will imply that our day to day work is not worthy of financial recognition.

Of course, this is all supposition, as no-one seems to know anything.

Morale at the moment is, to put it bluntly, crap, and it wouldn't surprise me if there were some form of 'action' in the near future. (Nothing that would affect patient care though).

It isn't helped by the misinformation in the media that is claiming that we will be earning a 30% pay rise, as this is purely for our (top trained) Emergency Care Paramedics, who are taking on the role of out-of-hours GPs. ECPs are in band 7, EMTs are likely to be put in band 4. So I won't be seeing a 30% increase...

At least we haven't got a job description that tells us to expect to be beaten up by patients and their relatives.