Dumbing down of the Ambulance Service

Across at Random Acts of Reality we have the story of the latest dumbing down of the NHS. This time it's the turn of the Ambulance Service and as usual it is being sneaked in below the radar, not only of Joe Public, but even of the employees. As Tom Reynolds says.

With the whole dumbing down of healthcare under this government, this hasn't come as a huge surprise, what has come as a surprise is that no-one is protesting it. It's a stupid, stupid idea and I'm dreading working with an ECA; it's nothing against the people who will be doing the job, but they won't have the training to provide the care that has traditionally been part of the ambulance service.

It's the sort of thing that will have me leaving this job that I love so much.

I picked this up from Dr Crippen who said in his article:

This, of course, is Hewitt dumbing down the service to save a few pence. Her mind works like that. Most of the patients who see GPs only have minor illness, so why not get a nurse to do their job? Most of the patients consultants see have predictable and easily treatable problems, so why not get a GP (with a “special interest” of course) to do the job? Most of the calls the ambulance service get, even the 999 calls, are breathtakingly trivial. So driving skills, even white van driving skills, will do nicely, thank you. Who needs a paramedic?

Most of medicine, like any other job, is humdrum. But when there is a serious problem, a really serious problem, you need trained personnel. You need experience.

If the paramedics are replaced by white van drivers, the really seriously ill patients will not get to hospital.

Perhaps it does not matter any more. You might as well die in the in the hands of the ambulance quacktitioner on your way to hospital as die a few hours later in the hands of the hospital-at-night quacktitioner.

Soon the NHS will be populated by the likes of Blue Peter's John "I'll have a go" Noakes and we will just be one big accidenttraining exercise for the NHS as they skill up. Remind me not to get ill/have an accident/get pregnant(?) again.


Random Acts Of Reality :: Changes, And Not For The Best... (Or - Reynolds May Lose His Job Again)