All posts originally published on the Broken Paramedic blog.
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has just finished hosting its first two day international pre-hospital emergency care conference in Brighton. Annelies van Wamel, roving paramedic and friend of this blog, attended the conference and has kindly provided this overview of the first day. Innovation for Pre-Hospital Read more…
My visit to London Ambulance Service on 5th May 2015 was a mission to learn more about the organisation’s approach to supporting its workforce as its operational staff toil to provide a service in increasingly demanding conditions. With front line staff routinely facing relentless 12-hour shifts without respite, delivering emergency Read more…
[This account is Eddie Daly’s story, told from his perspective. As such, it is important to recognise that it is not entirely without bias. The perspective of London Ambulance Service executive officers are discussed in this article, to which the events detailed in this account will give context.] Edmund Daly Read more…
My visit to London Ambulance Service’s headquarters a fortnight ago arose from my concerns regarding the treatment of its under-pressure front line staff, suggestions of a culture of fear, and in particular its handling of the Edmund Daly case – a respected 30-year veteran paramedic who was dismissed for gross Read more…
The comments and emails I have been receiving as a result of this blog paint a bleak picture of operational ambulance staff struggling under the increasingly intolerable burden of great responsibility, health-eroding fatigue and an employer that doesn’t care about their welfare. According to reports received from a variety of Read more…
On Friday, I had the opportunity to meet Edmund Daly, the former LAS paramedic at the centre of the controversy which has triggered a national outcry about the treatment of ambulance clinicians. He told me the details of his story. In 2005, Eddie Daly won ‘Accident & Emergency Person of Read more…
The strength of feeling among operational ambulance staff that has been made evident by the Edmund Daly case has been polarising. It is painfully clear that the precedent the case sets applies further intolerable pressure on front line clinicians and that it desperately needed to be addressed. Annelies van Wamel Read more…
A year ago today, I watched my mother die. An otherwise healthy woman, she unexpectedly started to suffer a decline in health early last year and by March, she was immobile, confused and emotionally volatile. I, along with my two younger sisters, cared for her at home. We did what Read more…
It is painfully evident from the outcry caused by the case of Edmund Daly, a beleaguered paramedic who could take no more and was thrown to the wolves for it, that things are horribly wrong within the practise of emergency pre-hospital care. After reading about the case on various news Read more…
In this past week, many major news outlets have covered a story about a London Ambulance Service paramedic who refused to attend a 999 call on the grounds that he and his crewmate were dangerously tired after 11 hours overnight without a break. Across the mainstream media, the tone of Read more…