Halstead: Paramedic's concern over ambulance response times (From Halstead Gazette)
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Halstead: Paramedic's concern over ambulance response times
5:00pm Friday 1st February 2013 in News
Concerns have been raised about how quickly ambulances reach emergency calls
Heart attack patients are more likely to survive in Colchester than rural villages around Halstead because they have more resources, claims a paramedic.
Halstead has a frontline ambulance and there are teams of volunteer first responders in the town and in some surrounding villages, who respond to immediately life-threatening calls such as patients who have had a cardiac arrests or are unconscious.
But the paramedic, who wished to remain anonymous, said the ambulance is often diverted to Colchester, where there is high demand.
The East of England Ambulance has just under 1,500 paramedics and is in the process of recruiting 199 new paramedics and emergency care assistants across the region, which includes Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
OMPITA [UK] says...
7:40am Mon 4 Feb 13
This report was promulgated well over two days ago but not so much as a single murmur of discontent do we see proffered for publication in this forum.
Do they care? Do they understand? I think not!
As recently as 15th December there was a report of a 77 year old Halstead gentleman with a broken hip lying in the road for an hour and a half whilst waiting for an ambulance.
Where was the ‘front line ambulance’ that day?
How many residents of this ‘thriving metropolis’ got on line to add their voice of protest? Zilch!
Allow me to repeat my comments that I made at that time:
LETHARGY RULES OK?
Here is a report that highlights an absolutely awful situation whereby a 77 year old gentleman with a broken hip lies in the gutter for an hour and a half before the arrival of an ambulance!
Surely bad enough itself - but what shocks me even more is the fact that two days after this report was published not so much as one person out of the eleven thousand plus populace of Halstead has seen fit to proffer any comment whatsoever.
Unbelievable!
I think my cousin who lives in Braintree has it well summed up when I mention my reservations about Halstead people’s lack of spirit.
“They are a funny lot over there” she tells me.
Funny? I think they are downright weird.