Tom Reynolds's Blog, page 8

Shameful

A mentally ill, suicidal teenager was ferried around for hours by an ambulance crew because no NHS unit would accept her, the BBC has learnt .

The girl eventually had to be taken to a police cell, documents revealed under the Freedom of Information Act show.

This is just shameful.

Sadly I have often said that of all the psychiatric referrals I have made over the years first as an A&E nurse, and then for the ambulance service - only a handful have gone without incident.

I've had units...

Dial 999 If You Can't Cope With Life

When the last chairman of the London Ambulance Service left earlier this year he gave an exit interview in our internal newsletter, he said, "We are not an emergency service any more, we are a problem solving service".

Which is kind of the root of our problem.

For my last four night shifts I'd spent my time going to people who really didn't need an ambulance. They fell into one (or more) of a number of categories.

The 'I want treatment now'.

This group of people really have no idea what an...

Update On A Rumour

A little while ago I posted about a rumour that the LAS would have their budget cut by £25 million come a new government.

After I wrote that Andrew Boff (Conservative member of the London Assembly) got in contact with me and did some asking around in his part of the world.

This is his reply,

I've chased this up with the Conservative Front bench and they have no plans relating to any change in LAS services at all. Andrew Lansley has set out a commitment to cut by a third the cost of...

Happy Thoughts

I wake up at 1:30 am, it's my 38th birthday and I'm awake because shift work has killed my bodyclock. Various parts of my body ache, consequences of a job where heavy, unsafe lifting is sadly a fact of life.

I stare at the ceiling, thoughts running through my head, becoming more and more hate filled as I reflect on my job.

I know that this is in part the trifecta of SAD, nightshifts and a couple of months without a 'decent' job. If I could just do a call where I actually helped someone by...

I Would Walk 5,000 Miles (Because I Keep Breaking Down)

We have a lovely new ambulance at West Ham station. They are quite nice actually, there is much more leg room so it means I don't think I'm stuck in an economy airplane for twelve hours.

They have groovy new electronic systems that talk to you and do things like turn off the lights in order to save battery power - it only sometimes turns off the lights when you really need them.

It has the new electric trolley-beds, which I'm yet to encounter a problem with, although I'm sure that it's only a m...

My New Favourite T-Shirt

From the excellent Warren Ellis and his T-Shirt of the week. I'm getting this on both T-Shirt and Hoodie.

It is only available for a week, so if you want one, I'd hurry up and order.

For those that are interested in Print On Demand (and I am) - Ariana Osbourne writes a wonderful little post about the design work on the POD 'Shivering Sands' that she and Ellis worked on together.

Kindle Chronicles

A few things to post about today, but first I need to sleep, so until this afternoon I'll give you something to listen to.

For those of you who are interested in the Kindle reader, there is no better podcast than Len Edgerly's 'The Kindle Chronicles', so I was exceptionally privileged to be invited to have a little chat with him.

During the show I talk a little about the problems that Amazon may have in the UK being later to market than the Sony Reader, about open formats and the craziness of r...

Charlie Stross

I'm a massive fan of Charlie Stross and, while I've been wanting to write about the insanity that is the Digital Economy Bill, I think that he has hit the nail on the head.

I'm reproducing his whole article because I believe that it is important to get this message out there, and I hope he doesn't mind that I want to make sure that people read his article and aren't put off by having to follow a link.

I also humbly suggest that you go and read his blog. Then head over to the Open Rights Group

Father

I've given up on the NaNoWriMo for this year - too many twelve hour shifts (I'm starting nightshifts today), coupled with some deadlines approaching and I'd have to spend twelve hour shifts when not at work writing to keep up with the schedule.

This doesn't mean I'm abandoning it, I'm going to keep writing it, and I may throw the 'beta version' up somewhere else - be sure I'll let you know when and if I do.

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Back to writing about ambulance work, work that often seems stranger than fiction.

T...

Mr And Mrs Sundin

A couple of days at work and then two days off where my brain refused to get out of idle means that I've seriously fallen behind schedule for NaNoWriMo. If I don't have the chance to get going then I'm unlikely to 'win'. Still, even if I don't finish the 50,000 words by the end of November, I'm still planning on finishing this thing.

What I do with it once it's written may be something... interesting.

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It would seem that Judith's lead has paid off, she's leading be down some cobbled...