Quick paramedics (1 Viewer)

Big bus man

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I know that paramedics do a great job and they need to get to an incident fast but on my way home just now I passed an Audi A8 being used for rapid response, in my view a bit over the top and probably dangerous to other drivers being it is so low and fast, like any other speeding vehicle....will they get there any quicker??
 

Khizzie

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I care not what a paramedic arrives in when I'm flat on the floor, motionless, I assure you!

The word has got around all the ambulance drivers about you on your back on the floor.. Talk about fast response .......

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sedge

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I would hasten to add that I had been removed from my chair that I was frozen to, and placed in the recovery position, so in fact it would have been very difficult to take advantage of me, and most unlikely with the assembled audience of my colleagues!

However had the emergency responder been Harold Shipman, rather than the normal sort, he could indeed have administered an overdose of morphine intravenously instead of the glucose drip!
 
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Big bus man

Big bus man

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To be clear I don't mind them using fast vehicles, the one in question was driving slowly on the opposite carriageway although 3 other paramedics and an ambulance were 2 minutes ahead of it with blue lights flashing so there is a nasty incident somewhere, however back to the plot, an Audi A8 costs 3x the price of their usual vehicles and we have to pay for them, though I guess it could have been a demonstrator vehicle on loan from Audi. I would love all paramedics to drive supercars for rapid response but not if the NHS has to pay for them.
 

MikeD

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Community First Responders (CFRs) and volunteers
Many local ambulance services run volunteer responder schemes. Volunteers receive medical training and are expected to provide emergency care alongside ambulances or until an ambulance can be on site. They are often trained to use defibrillators, provide CPR and are able to give oxygen treatment. The volunteers have to provide their own cars and usually don't have blue lights.

http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/aboutn...gentcareservices/pages/ambulanceservices.aspx

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Khizzie

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To be clear I don't mind them using fast vehicles, the one in question was driving slowly on the opposite carriageway although 3 other paramedics and an ambulance were 2 minutes ahead of it with blue lights flashing so there is a nasty incident somewhere, however back to the plot, an Audi A8 costs 3x the price of their usual vehicles and we have to pay for them, though I guess it could have been a demonstrator vehicle on loan from Audi. I would love all paramedics to drive supercars for rapid response but not if the NHS has to pay for them.

A lot of these fast response vehicles that I have seen including the one at my surgery ,are supplied free of charge by vehicle agent,that way they get free advertising and the tax payer doesn't have to subsidise it ..however even if they were not loaned to us and we had to pay for them so be it ...they are an absolute necessity..
 
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Big bus man

Big bus man

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That sound encouraging MikeD but the Audi in question was fully liveried as a Paramedic and fitted with Blue lights, unusual enough to take other road users eyes off their own driving.
Some years ago a friend was driving home and saw a pretty police women walking down the road, he drove into the back of another car!
 

MikeD

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That sound encouraging MikeD but the Audi in question was fully liveried as a Paramedic and fitted with Blue lights, unusual enough to take other road users eyes off their own driving.

Wow - They start at ÂŁ60k :D

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jumar

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Back in my early years as an emergency service driver I was proud to tell anyone who wanted to know that...............I travelled to work in a Daimler [Corporation Bus ] and drove a Rolls Royce [ Fire Appliance Powered by Rolls Dennis] Is speed important, you bet it is.
 
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it will either be a loan vehicle from Audi as a demonstrator or a specialist paramedic vehicle such as Hazmed vehicle. The hazmed goes out to suspected chemical incidents to advise on medical treatment. Chemical incidents includes those RTC's involving tankers. Quite often the 'specialist' field paramedic vehicles are donated from car companies as it is advertising their vehicles reliability and handling. There are other 'specialist' paramedics out there such as Urban search and rescue paramedics (USAR), hazardous area response team (HART) paramedics, and paramedics who work alongside armed response police. There are also BASIS doctors who are transported to trauma scenes by either helicopter or a special car run by the ambulance service so it could well have been taking a doctor to the scene of an accident.
 

dave newell

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Was it an A8 or a R8? The A8 is a big saloon type vehicle with a V8 lump, the R8 is the low slung mid engined monster.

D.

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Big bus man

Big bus man

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Good point Dave, I like cars and I got it wrong, probably because I hate Audi's, it was the R8.
 

sdc77

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There used to be a Dr with a marked up E60 M5 tourer.
M5_v1.jpg

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Don Quixote

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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
I sorry who gives a poo what they drive or arrive in they are doing a great job and I'm not worried about a bloody silly thing like "a bit over the top and probably dangerous to other drivers being it is so low and fast"

Sometimes I just wonder........... I really do!
 
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I think it does matter what car it is it might be great to get there quick but if its a choice between 2 supercars or 3 octavia estates covering the same patch I know which I think is the best coverage

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salthegal10

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Could be a contract ambulance. The Ambulance services contract out all the time and there are lots of different bluelight company's. Generally their vehicles and equipment is better so i'm told.
 
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Big bus man

Big bus man

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I started this thread being it was an unusual observation, Perhaps I should stick to motor home stuff,

I will............I really will!
 

Easyliving

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I can tell you in the Norwich area they have an Audi too (don't know what model) but its an '08' reg and used by specialist paramedics. Most of the cars are either Ford Mondeo's or more recently, Skoda Octavia's. The life expectancy of these cars is surprisingly short, once they get to 3 years old they are generally pretty knackered due to being thrashed on the way to callls.

Paul

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Speeding blue and two vehicles can be an issue, they whizz through our village regularly.
Last week one responding to a call from GP who had a patient in their surgery with an infection issue, not life threatening.
However the ambulance took out a 70 year old guy on the pelican crossing who is now fighting for his life in Intensive care. He will never be the same again.
Police vehicles behave in the same manner, you have to question if all the blue and two action is really necessary.
 
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i would estimate that 75% of calls i go to do not even need an ambulance! until people stop abusing the service nothing will change. GPs book everything as priority call meaning we have to respond in 8 mins (government target time). they do it because they need to move onto the next patient for their 10 min time slot (government targets). People call an ambulance cos they cant get to see a gp/cant be arsed going to the pharmacy/ cant afford a taxi to the hospital/think theyll jump the queue at A&E............ not a day goes by when i dont cringe when i watch someone climbing a kerb to get out of my way whilst i am thinking "they would be horrified if they knew i was only going to a cut finger" . Unfortunately the government requires me to hit targets. I pray to god i never hit someone and i frequently question my control over the justification of calls being red responses. Unfortunately we are just too busy and calls with a 1 hour target time get pushed to the bottom of the pile until their 1 hr target has passed then they are auto upgraded to an 8 min response!!! The whole system is failing due to targets instead of common sense. Sorry, rant over!!
 
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would be good if NHS could started charging those who abuse the system, think it would more than pay for the occassional 'supercar'.

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wingman

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Sorry to hijack the thread which was initially about Audi's and fast expensive cars. BUT, I'm fundamentally against too many rapid response cars (note I said 'too many' and not meaning do away with them altogether).

The concept of response cars is not new; it was started way, way back in the late 60's/early 70's when horrendous pile-up's on Northern motorways were the order of the day. Ambulance crews then had limited training - being more or less first aiders on wheels. Trapped casualties were a particular problem and in one case where a lorry driver bleed to death for the want of I/V fluid and more expert care on the M1, a group of doctors got together to stem the loss of life. They formed BASICS (British Association of Immediate Care Schemes) and responded to these RTC's in their own cars which had green flashing beacons.

Fast-forward half a century to the present and a combination of the Vietnam War, Israeli Wars and the Ambulance Service staff themselves begging for better training, the UK's Ambulance Services and crews are amongst the highest trained in the world. Cars initially filled the gap when there wasn't enough paramedical staff to crew each ambulance. They were sent to augment a non-paramedical trained crew and NOT in lieu of a stretcher type ambulance.

BUT, back to cars. I believe that the RRU's (Rapid Response Units) has bought us no further forward to a proper conveyance response in 50 years!!!

On tonight's BBC TV News, a young student nurse - a diabetic - waited no less than 5 hours for an ambulance and subsequently died! This wasn't in the 'sticks' either, it was in London.

The cars are now being used in an attempt to circumnavigate the statutory response times. On another of this evening's TV programmes (Channel 5 'Where's my ambulance?') It transpires that if the ambulance service sent TWO cars instead of one, this counted as satisfying the standard of sending an ambulance vehicle within the 8 and 19minuute standard. Cynical eh?

No matter whether we have an Audi or not, we now have cars, motorbikes, push bikes and helicopters. However, someone has got to do something not only about response, but particularly, a vehicle that can actually CONVEY the patient. We either need more ambulance vehicles OR reduce the number of calls. The LAS (London Ambulance Service) now does over 3,000 emergency calls a day. I believe that the demand could be reduced by having additional experienced staff placed within the Control, rather than dispatchers with no road experience having to rely on a computer program or dispatching a resource just because they are afraid of litigation.

I spent 30 proud years of my working life in the Ambulance Service and in many cases, Audi or not, I'm sad to say that the 'service' is worse - despite all of the technology and training.
 

sedge

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i would estimate that 75% of calls i go to do not even need an ambulance! until people stop abusing the service nothing will change. GPs book everything as priority call meaning we have to respond in 8 mins (government target time). they do it because they need to move onto the next patient for their 10 min time slot (government targets). People call an ambulance cos they cant get to see a gp/cant be arsed going to the pharmacy/ cant afford a taxi to the hospital/think theyll jump the queue at A&E............ not a day goes by when i dont cringe when i watch someone climbing a kerb to get out of my way whilst i am thinking "they would be horrified if they knew i was only going to a cut finger" . Unfortunately the government requires me to hit targets. I pray to god i never hit someone and i frequently question my control over the justification of calls being red responses. Unfortunately we are just too busy and calls with a 1 hour target time get pushed to the bottom of the pile until their 1 hr target has passed then they are auto upgraded to an 8 min response!!! The whole system is failing due to targets instead of common sense. Sorry, rant over!!

Because at one time most of the Police vehicles were not insured (they do not have to be, neither do the Police have to carry Employer's Liability insurance) the accident rates of Police vehicles were not particularly evident. However, after some of the Forces decided of their own volition to insure, of course more people became aware of any claims. Sometimes they can be funny eg Policeman airside at airport parks Landrover on apron and goes off to lunch. Unfortunately the handbrake was not quite fully engaged, so it rolled forwards and struck a plane right on its nosecone (most expensive bit almost) Now do you want a really good laugh? - it was a Focker!

However an awful lot of em, were emergency responders one way or the other - like chases where the miscreant rammed em, or indeed hitting pedestrians on a crossing.

It has always happened on occasions and it always will - as long as there's traffic and people.
 

alfandM

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I sorry who gives a poo what they drive or arrive in they are doing a great job and I'm not worried about a bloody silly thing like "a bit over the top and probably dangerous to other drivers being it is so low and fast"

Sometimes I just wonder........... I really do!
Well said that man....(y)

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