Do not take all your patients to hospital, paramedics told

The Telegraph ^ | 11/10/2013 | Laura Donnelly

[markomalley]

Paramedics will be told to take fewer patients to hospital as part of radical reforms of the NHS to be unveiled this week.

A review led by the NHS medical director will call for sweeping changes to ease pressure on Accident & Emergency (A&E) units, and is expected to conclude that up to half of 999 calls should result in patients receiving care at home.

Amid a growing NHS crisis, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh will say that the total number of A&E departments should not be reduced — and may need to be expanded.

However, his report is understood to say that the system can only work safely if an illusion is exposed that all units are equally equipped to deal with every emergency. Sir Bruce has said extra money and “outsourcing” of some services to the private sector will be used to attempt to head off an immediate crisis, but will say the whole system of health care needs to be redesigned to meet growing long-term pressures.

[markomalley]

So first we have paramedics being told to not bring patients into the ER (in order to help out with the wait time metric), now they're being told to not transport patients in the first place.

[pepsionice]

You can imagine the scene. Gus and Andy arrive in the ambulance call to pick up Ms Buttercup. There’s a debate over her circumstances.

Gus calls the emergency room....where two doctors would debate for fifteen minutes over the wisdom of bringing Ms Buttercup to their wonderful local hospital. Eventually, they’d decide “no”.

Andy would sit and calm the elderly lady...explaining the various reasons for this...taking almost forty-five minutes of valuable medic time to get this across to someone in intense pain.

Ms Buttercup would ask if there’s another hospital or another possible ambulance crew. Gus would only say that you’d have to go an hour...to get into the next district, where her circumstances could be reviewed by different folks.

Ms Buttercup travels for sixty minutes...mostly weeping over the pain she has, and finally reaches some district where they decide she is fairly bad off and ought to be treated.

Gus and Andy? Well...they encounter sixteen people during their shift and only take five to the emergency room. They are awarded a bonus for decreasing the patient load of the local hospital.

Overall, the new program is noted in various journals and impressed by political thinkers as the “new way ahead”.

[2ndDivisionVet]

So they’re converting ambulances into hearses? Brilliant!

[2ndDivisionVet]

Isn’t that basically Michelle Obama’s old job description in Chicago? You know, the position where she made around $350,000 a year?

[Gen.Blather]

“So they’re converting ambulances into hearses? Brilliant!”

When I was a child in Tampa the ambulances were owned by funeral homes. The crew only got paid if they brought in a body. So many people were being allowed to die or killed on the way that they finally did away with that system.

A news segment where the TV channel paid an actor to fake a heart attack exposed the whole thing. They called funeral home after funeral home and put the hidden camera images on TV. All of the ambulance crews refused to take the man, but said call us when he dies.

[Venturer]

Your story has one great kink in it.

If Mrs. Buttercup can ride for an hour to get to another District, she didn’t need an ambulance in the first place she could have driven to the hospital.

In America today there are thousands of people calling an Ambulance and tying it up because they believe that if they are brought into the Emergency Room by Ambulance they will be seen sooner. How many of the families of these people get in their car and follow the ambulance to the hospital, when they could have taken the patient themselves.

I can tell you that many of these people would have arrived at the hospital 15 minutes sooner if they had driven themselves or had someone drive them. Todays Medical Ambulance services are tied up for hours on taxi runs.
Many times we take these people in on the cot and the Nurses tell them to get up and go sit in the waiting room.

We could retire the entire population of North & South Dakota on the money wasted on Ambulance calls that are not needed and Emergency Room visits that should have been taken care of in a Doctors office.

[Dark Knight]

Don’t know about where you are, but here the Fire Department does or does not do the transport based on what they find. They will encourage people to go to the ER on their own or with friends and family but those really needing transport with services get it. Charged $800 for it too.

DK

[Venturer]

Some ambulances here send out bills. They receive remuneration from the insurance company if the patient has insurance ,but if not it mostly goes unpaid.

A ride in the helicopter if needed is $6,000 bucks.

[spokeshave]

More about the UK HNS .....

and don't expect quick response for a broken arm:

And so you have an acute appendix....?

Mark Wattson, 35, from Swindon may have been the victim of botched surgery after he had to have his appendix removed twice

To his shock, surgeons from the same team told him that not only was his appendix still inside him, but it had ruptured - a potentially fatal complication.

In a second operation it was finally removed, leaving Mr Wattson fearing another organ might have been taken out during the first procedure.

The blunder has left Mr Wattson jobless, as bosses at the shop where he worked did not believe his story and sacked him.

Mr Wattson told of the moment he realised there had been a serious mistake.

'I was lying on a stretcher in terrible pain and a doctor came up to me and said that my appendix had burst,' he said.

'I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I told these people I had my appendix out just four weeks earlier but there it was on the scanner screen for all to see.

'I thought, "What the hell did they slice me open for in the first place?"

'I feel that if the surgery had been done correctly in the first place I wouldn't be in the mess I am today. I'm disgusted by the whole experience.'

Mr Wattson first went under the knife on July 7 after experiencing severe abdominal pain for several weeks. He was discharged but exactly a month later he had to dial 999 after collapsing in agony. Mr Wattson

Mr Wattson was readmitted to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon after his appendix ruptured.

Nurse will see you now

Sit back and enjoy your Obamacare.

[Mike Darancette]

Where I live the FD responds and a paramedic ambulance shows up. The ambulance company only gets paid if the FD tells them to treat and transport. You will be treated and transported for about $1,500 a pop.

[Jane Long]

They already do this in France. We witnessed an auto accident where one driver was hurt pretty bad. They pulled him out of the car, and over to the sidewalk. There, he waited what like seemed an eternity for the ambulance to show up. They worked on him for over 30 mins and then they (EMS) left. He waited for someone to pick him up, still doubled over. Strange watching this process. I told our friends...0Care...coming to our country, soon.

[the scotsman]

In the UK, far too many people with minor injuries or illnesses, esp drunks at the weekend for example, end up getting an ambulance to hospital, when they could be treated in situ.

The UK ambulance service is at breaking point on those days, and IMO this is what these plans are meant to address.

[dfwgator]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52EEzBNn48g

“Fractured Tibia, Sargeant....Fractured Tibia, Sargeant.......OOOH! Proper little Mummy’s boy aren’t we?”

[donmeaker]

Its a lot like the Soviet era shoe factory that had a large quota of shoes, but couldn’t get enough leather to make that many.

They ended up using a year’s supply of leather making miniature “doll” shoes that were of no use to anyone- but they made their quota!

Before we go to socialized health care we should try socialized shoes, and see how that works out. I can see it now, people being arrested for wearing home made shoes rather than the approved socialist shoes (which are not available or don’t fit). Of course the fat cats in government would have shoes, as they would make themselves exempt from the legislation.