::waves:: i've been popping in and out, on and off for a while Great work with the blog, TR! Some GPs still never fail to astound me. A fellow tech and I were called to a surgery a few months ago. We were already out of place due to the need to pull us into a busier area for cover. Breathing difficulties due to asthma. I imagined it to be a bit of taxi run that needed keeping an eye-on. I had to interupt the receptionist to ask where the pt was. She pointed behind me to the waiting area where i found our patient (and friend). It was obvious which was the patient. Her colour was appalling and she was struggling! She was clutching the familiar letter. Well thank goodness... :;eye rolling moment:: Having lobbed ordinary oxy on (my colleague had gone for the chair) i hurried back out to the vehicle to get the salbutamol. I returned to the waiting room to find that she'd now been moved(WALKED, would you believe) up the corridor to the treatment room. I'd already been rather short with one of the receptionists. The doc appeared saying she was fine and had been given oral steroids a while back. It was doing nothing for her. I muttered something about following OUR protocols and carried on. I managed to draw breath at some point and apologise for being short with the receptionist(To the said receptionist). She nodded. saying"It's ok. It's the doctor isn't it?"."Yes". Someone must've said something to one of the partners as she appeared as we'd got our pt. in to the vehicle. I explained we were both EMTs and were tied to giving only salbutamol. And if i was a para i would do more.She was quick to see that more was required and she gave steroids(hydracortisone) IV directly. As she exited our vehicle she said she'd "sort things". We moved our lady quickly the 26 miles to our nearest A&E. You can not be mucking about with people with breathing difficulties when so far from a district general hospital(DGH) I saw her a few weeks later in our chippy (spot the healthy diet the ambulance services follow - haha) They hadn't exactly kicked her out straightaway. Thankfully, she was looking good now... then. Job done - no thanks to the first GP. One of many cases. We get called to chest pains where doctors have left before we arrive. This goes against a nationwide policy re the treatment of cardiac-related chest pains. On quite a few occasions we are told "It's ok. They don't need blah blah blah" and we have to say "Yes we do. It's part of our protocols for such a case".