Stroke Patient Dies After Ambulance Driver Clocks Out 19
After suffering a stroke, 69-year-old Ali Asghar was unlucky enough to get an ambulance driver who really, really, hated overtime. The driver allegedly refused to work beyond his shift and clocked out part-way through the trip to the hospital. Since it was 15 minutes past quitting time, the ambulance was taken to the depot where the next shift's driver took over and finally brought Mr. Asghar to the hospital. Asghar deteriorated during the drive and died soon after arriving at North Tees hospital's accident and emergency unit. An NHS source said, "Paramedics pride themselves on the public being able to feel they are in the best hands when they are called out to an emergency. If this person wanted a nine to five job he should not have become a paramedic. A couple of minutes in a life or death situation is a very long time. Skimming off just a few seconds from an emergency call-out can save lives — that's why ambulances are fitted with blue lights and sirens."
Sounds like a... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Sounds like someone will soon be a volunteer paramedic since that is likely to end his paid career.
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good example of government-run health "care".
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good example of government-run health "care".
Yeah, 'cause the US doesn't have HMO horror stories...
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Yeah, 'cause the US doesn't have HMO horror stories...
Just because I don't want an NHS doesn't mean that I'm blind to the inadequacies of the current system.
It's simply an effort to remind Americans that single-payer is not a wonder panacea.
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You do realize that there is nothing about single payer in the current legislation.
Didn't say there was...
But there are lots of people who think that single-payer is the answer to a maiden's prayer, and I think they need 40-50 whacks with a hardwood clue stick.
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This story has nothing to do with government funding or otherwise. There's even a quote from an NHS official saying this guy shouldn't be a paramedic.
Can you please explain to how the "this individual is a dick head therefore government healthcare sucks" argument actually works? I mean explain it so it makes sense and so you don't wind up looking even stupider?
Didn't think so.p>
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This story has nothing to do with government funding or otherwise.
It has everything to do with the type of person that governments hire.
There's even a quote from an NHS official saying this guy shouldn't be a paramedic.
As if they'd say anything else. Anyway, if he shouldn't be a paramedic, why did they hire him???
I mean explain it so it makes sense
Because government bureaucracies are designed to follow "process" designed by politically-influenced dead-heads who can't find productive work in the private sec
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As if they'd say anything else. Anyway, if he shouldn't be a paramedic, why did they hire him???
For the same reasons a private company would hire him. He would have to pass his training and an interview process. I'm sure that private or public control would have little impact on whether this fuck knuckle would have been weeded out.
Captains of oil tankers have been known to get pissed and cause oil spills, private traders have brought world economies to their knees, deliberate chemical spills in ground wat
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public does better because public health is motivated by people not losing their jobs at the next election rather than profit.
I'm sure it is, but good intentions don't pay the bills. Put more crudely: spit in one hand, and wish in the other, and guess which hand fills up first.
My cousin in a new MD who got a nice 6 month trip to NZ as a contract psychiatrist (yes, that's her specialty) because NZ pays full-time doctors so little that no one wants to work there.
And then there the constant running out of mon
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I'm in a union and because we can't just take off on strike or necessary when we are supposed to go home, the contract has provisions for that. No union is ever going to demand that sort of provision, at best it's bad for business at worst it costs lives.
Can someone explain the photo (Score:1)
Not in the US... (Score:2)
that's why ambulances are fitted with blue lights and sirens.
Maybe in the UK, but in the US I believe that flashing blue lights are strictly reserved for law enforcement.
Is there another color reserved for law enforcement in the UK, or is it just kind of a pick-your-own-color free for all amongst the emergency services? :-)
blue lights in UK (Score:2)
Emergency services in the UK all use flashing blue lights. e.g. see The Highway Code, Rule 31 [direct.gov.uk].
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Blue lights are reserved for emergency vehicles (fire, police, ambulance etc). They all use blue..
For more information than you could possible want, try here [ukemergency.co.uk].
Wow (Score:1)
Sad (Score:1)