"...shouted at the paramedics who helped her. The source added: “When she came to she started mouthing off and told the ambulance crew, ‘You have to respect my privacy’. She then told them to get out."

Although, blimey, reading that copy make my teeth hurt. 'pretty 19-year-old', 'raced to the scene', 'pal'. Seriously, does anyone ever refer to people as 'pal' these days?

So, is this story in the 'public interest' and if not why does the Sun have the right to breach patient confidentiality? Because no ambulance crew would go to the press about this - we have ethical standards.

Today this blog is five years old. It's moved beyond the terrible twos and is now happily walking around on it's own, only occasionally falling over and skinning it's knee.

This is the longest period of time I've ever stuck at doing something. I've stuck at it because for some aspects of my life this blog *is* me, what I write here is the part of my personality that I extrude onto the internet. I've stuck at it because I love blogging, I love the community and I love evangelising about blogging.

I've had great opportunities because of this blog, I've done interesting things, become an international author, and most importantly I've met some really great people.

I've had a chance to be involved in a conversation with thousands of people, some of whom have become good friends to me.

Writing this blog has enabled me to reflect on my own internal thought processes and has changed me for the better, I think so at least. When I started this blog I hated my patients, now I am practiced at viewing their situation from other angles (a process I use to try and stop repeating myself) and this has made me a better ambulanceman.

While there are tropes that I've revisited I don't think I've ever repeated myself, somethings I want to bring to the attention of everyone and this blog has let me do that. Every drunk is an individual.

I love blogging and I can't see myself ever giving it up.

But.

I can feel my health slipping away due to shift work, and while I still enjoy the job to some extent, it's not stretching my mind at all. I get paid (before tax) £25,000 a year to wreck my body with shift-work, surround myself with the violent and the sick and then get threatened with disciplinary procedures for being ill too much. I watch how the job is changing and I hate the changes being made in order to please our government masters.

I look at all the things being done wrong and have no power to change them, nor will I ever have that power.

So, from today, I am officially looking for another job. I'll do (pretty much) any work for £25,000 or more. I'll work in an office, I'll wear a suit, I'll sit at a computer all day - I don't really mind. Obviously my ideal job would be something where I can be evangelical about something I love - journalism, podcasting, teaching people to use the internet, doing online PR, helping a company with it's social media strategy. Something like that would be perfect. I don't think that I want to stay in the NHS, not patient-side at least*.

Time to start looking forward rather than at the walls of this rut I've made.

Lets see what the next five years bring...

*However, I think I'd sign on to do bank, or 'casual' ambulance work at the weekends - I'm not sure I can get blue-light driving completely out of my veins.