Our overstretched ambulance service

[Deleted member 26715]

Seems like something that could be sorted with a bit of thought. If it was say Toyota running the service they would get that waste out of the system pronto.

I don't think the issue is the frontline staff, it's the office politics of higher management.

 

[Levo-Lon]

I don't think the issue is the frontline staff, it's the office politics of higher management.

I work in care, we have trained care staff
We do training on lifting moving and handling of people.
If a resident is on the floor we cant pick them up..

Honestly you cant make it up.. We have to call an Ambulance.
If there's a stat fo Ambulance staff picking up the elderly with no injuries id think its thousands a year.

Add in the pathetic A&E time wasters with a paper cut and a "im in for some money" and you soon understand why its gone pear shaped.

 

[Drago]

They're in use, having replaced the forms that had to be filled out. Why not use them to their fullest, if possible.

Because the forms were usually quicker, simpler, and didn't require charging twice a shift. In most - but definitely not all, there is the odd worthy exception - cases such devices actually prolong the process, and often duplicate it. I know people who've actually quit front line public sector jobs rather than waste any more of their lives pulling their hair out with such systems.

One piede of software - I won't name it publicly - was bought off the shelf in order to save £70,000 that it was costing the organisation in maintaining its own in house system. The old system worked very, very well, but was requiring 2 x full time IT lads to rin and maintain it. Surely those jobs could go and save the organisation their salaries?

Alas, the new software was so bloated and convoluted to use it was later estimated that in the first year since its introduction it had actually cost over £1 million when one accounted for the extra hour or 90 minutes a day that each member of staff was having to spend inputting data on it when compared to the bespoke system it had replaced.

90 minutes extra daily x 2000 odd staff = well in excess of £1,000,000. Oh dear.

But that's not all. The same amount of actual work is expected from the people who are now having to spend an extra hour or 90 minutes on IT related work every day, and the strain of having to do so was simply too much for many people. This is when people started to quit rather than carry on, and quite a few went, in the dozens. This necessitates more expense on advertising, recruitment, hiring, new uniform, training... the annual saving of £70,000 was wiped out 20 times over, and that loss is repeated every single year.

That's what happens when people try to get too clever.

 

[Levo-Lon]

You can apply a lot of the above to Tax collection.. Self employed get no pay for doing a lot of work, for the government, tax needn't be taxing.. Ffs

 

[Globalti]

When I used to mountain bike I once came across a bloke sitting on the pavement with his leg stretched out, surrounded by his riding buddies who all looked embarrassed. When I asked what was wrong he told me he had crashed and he had a hole in his leg. I couldn't see anything though his tights or any blood. Then an ambulance arrived and the bloke started shuffling himself towards it on his bottom, holding his leg out stiffly in front of him. The faces on the two crew were a picture and at that point I left, also embarrassed. What a clown.

 

[swee'pea99]

Never having used an ambulance I had no idea crews had to wait in reception with their passengers. That's insane. What a staggering waste of resources.

I've always remembered John Harvey Jones on one of those investigative programmes saying the NHS's fundamental problem was that it couldn't afford to compete with the private sector for the managers it needed. Paying peanuts, it ended up with monkeys, so already inadequate resources were incompetently used. That was 20 years ago. Sounds like nothing's changed.

Paper-cut morons don't help, nor do austerity budgets. But the systems, the management: they're the killer.

 

[classic33]

The three hours given in an earlier post, was under a system thought up by those who actually have to use the operational side of things.

New department manager isn't keen on it. It goes, the time spent waiting around will increase.

The "upside" being that crews can get a break whilst they wait!

 

[Globalti]

A contributing factor I believe is the people living in this country who have no tradition of going to see a GP and wouldn't trust their local GP so they go straight to hospital.

 

[lane]

More likely people can't get an appointment at the GP.

 

[screenman]

More likely people can't get an appointment at the GP.

You can here, it just takes a few weeks.

 

[lane]

Well, exactly!

Luckily I can get one same day.

 

[Paulus]

I saw two "paramedics" just sitting on the grass today. Felt like asking them what they were doing at the rear of the ambulance station. Can't possibly have been genuine ones sat down, enjoying the sunny weather.

Even paramedics are entitled to a break during their shift.

 

[MarkF]

Because the forms were usually quicker, simpler, and didn't require charging twice a shift. In most - but definitely not all, there is the odd worthy exception - cases such devices actually prolong the process, and often duplicate it. I know people who've actually quit front line public sector jobs rather than waste any more of their lives pulling their hair out with such systems.

One piede of software - I won't name it publicly - was bought off the shelf in order to save £70,000 that it was costing the organisation in maintaining its own in house system. The old system worked very, very well, but was requiring 2 x full time IT lads to rin and maintain it. Surely those jobs could go and save the organisation their salaries?

Alas, the new software was so bloated and convoluted to use it was later estimated that in the first year since its introduction it had actually cost over £1 million when one accounted for the extra hour or 90 minutes a day that each member of staff was having to spend inputting data on it when compared to the bespoke system it had replaced.

90 minutes extra daily x 2000 odd staff = well in excess of £1,000,000. Oh dear.

But that's not all. The same amount of actual work is expected from the people who are now having to spend an extra hour or 90 minutes on IT related work every day, and the strain of having to do so was simply too much for many people. This is when people started to quit rather than carry on, and quite a few went, in the dozens. This necessitates more expense on advertising, recruitment, hiring, new uniform, training... the annual saving of £70,000 was wiped out 20 times over, and that loss is repeated every single year.

That's what happens when people try to get too clever.

Great post D.

Working in A&E, a medical professional would say "" Mark do this/that please" and l'd do it. I also had a pc screen showing who who was in each cubicle, name, DOB, sex and why they were there. That was important to me, it'd help me prepare to meet them, suicidal or off their head violent wackos need different approaches.

Now the medical professionals are data inputters and have to enter it onto the system via a terminal. Then hope it arrives on my handheld pod, but it might not, because l often don't have a wireless signal, also the system doesn't know the med pro wants me to do job, so it might arrive on another's porters device! And l now have no idea about anything at all when l pull back the curtain to face a patient.

The pod is monitored, how many jobs l do, how long they take etc Little old lady wants a chair ride? Some med pro needs something urgent "Sorry it's not on the system"...well to help them I'll be rated as "ldle", thats what the system shows and l'd be assessed negatively, should l help?

On general duties, l used to do something obvious. Taking a patient back on a trolley to a ward, meant that l'd match up another job, that is I'd pick up another patient on said trolley from somewhere and move them, 2 jobs per trip.

Now l cannot, l am at the mercy of a system that sends inappropriate/random jobs to me, so its usually 1 trip = 1 job, even manipulating it I reckon my productivity has fallen 30-40%.

It's the 2nd highly expensive IT portering system in 3 years, neither of which are as good as the old tech controller & radios. The controller " knew", the systems do not.

We now have a "command centre" and a "wall of analytics" that might improve matters, we'll see.

 

[Accy cyclist]

On my numerous ambulance trips to A&E for broken bones,RTA's dislocations etc I always request gas and air. It's just got to be the highlight of the journey(some might say trip)

 

[lane]

You can here, it just takes a few weeks.

Your part of the country - but many years ago. In-fact when Pilgrims Hospital in Boston had just opened. My Dad recounted to me the story of a trip to the A&E there after some DIY mishap. I think he was either the only or more or less the only patient - seen immediately because Doctors were literally waiting for someone to come through the door. How times change. He has trouble seeing the GP as well now.