Carry On Stabbing

"34 year old male, stabbed in leg"

Criminal (Crim-in-al)

Noun: A person who has committed a crime.

Synonyms: felon - malefactor - delinquent - offender - culprit

Idiot (Id-i-ot)

Noun: A stupid person.

Synonyms: fool - imbecile - blockhead - dunce - nitwit

Imbecile (Im-be-cile)

Noun: A person who's mental acumen is well below par.

Synonyms: fool - idiot - halfwit - cretin - moron

I am giving you these definitions to bear in mind whilst reading about this job.

Aren't Friday nights wonderful?! If ever you wonder what exactly the tax funded emergency services are doing, specifically police and ambulance (trumpton have their weekly table tennis tournament), then just stand on a street corner and watch the countless number of blue light vehicles career up and down the road! Then, if you get bored of that either go and look inside your local A & E or observe the activity outside your local police station! It is non stop! Most of the things we are dealing with are alcohol related illness or alcohol related crime, both of which stretch our capacity to bursting point. 

Today was no different. I often comment on how busy things are but as far as Friday nights go, tonight was absolute carnage! It really was like a war zone. After having a few drunks we'd scooped up and taken to hospital a stabbing was most welcome! The police were on scene so we headed straight to scene. What we were about to walk into, no amount of description could have prepared us for. You literally couldn't make it up!

Q. Let's say you are a criminal. Where is one place you would NOT want to commit a crime? Outside a police station?

Well, the location of said stabbing was indeed right outside the police station. Not only did it happen outside the main entrance, it was witnessed by 4 burly coppers so the stabber was quickly apprehended. Smooth!

Q. If you had a stubby nature and were....well....a stabber, what would be the goal of stabbing someone? To hurt or kill them perhaps?!

Well, the only person injured in the stabbing, was in fact the stabber. Why? Because he stabbed a man in his prosthetic leg. Yep, not the good leg, the gut, the chest, the back, the neck or the arms, oh no! He managed to stab the one part that was unstabable! The impact of such a solid object caused his hand to slip down the hilt of the blade and slice his own fingers open. Smooth!

Q. When running away from someone (i.e. The police), where do you look whilst running your heart out? Forward or backwards?

Well, in this case, the criminal stabber didn't look forwards. He looked back at the sudden plethora of policeman bearing down on him. Whilst running forward, and looking backwards he was attacked by lamp post and knocked himself unconscious. Smooth!

*cue our arrival of scene* 

Our patient was the smooth criminal who had stabbed himself outside a police station and knocked himself unconscious. He was very much alert when we arrived, saying it was self defence and the war veteran with one leg had been trying to mug him, so he pulled out the kitchen knife he happened to have on him and protected himself. Oh how we all laughed! Perhaps when he had that brainwave it came about in not too dissimilar a fashion to one of Baldrick's cunning plans!

I bandaged his hand, bandaged his head and he was loaded onto the truck, not before he managed to spit at me. That went down well! 

Q. Seriously though, who tries to mug someone outside a police station and then manages to stab himself , cause no injury to their victim and get knocked out in the escape process?! 

A.  A Criminal, An Idiot, An Imbecile

Dial 999... & wait?

"A country in apparent shock at having to wait for an ambulance"

On Monday 3rd September the BBC aired a programme called 'Dial 999...& wait?' detailing the failings of the emergency services in this country. It's shocking isn't it; having to wait for something? Just terrible. Like with most documentaries, articles and reports about the emergency services, we all come under attack. I say all, as per usual the PR department for the Fire service has been working overtime so they came away unscathed. There was no such escape for the Police and Ambulance services. The culture of targets and response times was what the programme was about and, rather than talk about the real causes, it just highlighted the failings of the services using some well-placed stories about people suffering due to waiting times. 

First in the firing line was the police; the shocking statistic that out of 1 in 5 calls made, the police take more than 15 minutes to arrive. Outrageous. We surely expect more from our police?! I wonder what the government had to say about it... oh yeah, they declined an interview. Obviously the cuts are to blame, there is no denying that; a 20% budget cut is huge, but instead of doing a programme blaming the government they blame the police for basically being greedy. The short interview with Andrew Haldenby from the "think-tank" Reform showed only the attitudes of those not directly involved in working with or in the police. The police have 'never had more money than they have now' and 'for far to long, forces have rested on their laurels'. If cuts are being made, services will be affected. The reason the police have more money now than ever before is because year-on-year the call volume goes up. Don't for one minute believe isolated statistics of a decrease in crime; it is simply that the type of crime is changing. The police still require resources to deal with the 100's of 1000's of daily calls. This call volume will not change, yet somehow, on skeleton staff, they are expected to arrive anywhere within minutes of a call.

The example they used of peoples' suffering was a shop owner who had been burgled. She was 'shocked' at the police not arriving for 20 minutes. How many shop alarms are triggered each night? How many violent assaults are there? How many domestics? How many hoaxes? How many RTCs? How many requests from the ambulance service? How many raids are being done? How many criminals are being hunted? That is just a fraction of the work our police force is doing. In the London borough where I live there are about 330,000 residents. The borough covers 87 square kilometers and is the second largest in London. While chatting to an officer a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning, he told me there were only 13 front line officers responding to calls. He also told me he remembers when there were 30+. It's no surprise that with such huge cuts low priority calls like a shop alarm are getting a delayed response. To be perfectly honest I'm 'shocked' that the police got there so quickly.

Avoiding the fire, ironically, was the Fire Service; no shock there. No talk of missed targets, only that they arrived at a fire within 6 minutes. To be fair, it is easy to arrive anywhere in 6 minutes if you are sitting and waiting for that call to come in and get to spend all day perfecting the art of getting into your vehicle quickly. Last year the London Fire Brigade had a budget of around £437 million compared to £288 million the Ambulance Service got. They received 230,000 calls compared to the 1.6 million the London Ambulance Service received. They attended only 138,385 calls compared to 1.2 million that LAS did. They did so with their 5800 operational staff (almost double that of the ambulance service) from their 112 fire stations (compared to the ambulance service's 70), and of their calls attended, only 29,215 were fires. That is about 80 a day across London. Considerably less than 1 per fire station. Is it any wonder that they are able to respond quickly?! What was highlighted by the programme though was the crippling cuts that they are now facing. A whopping 3% in their budget! Wow! How will they cope?! Maybe they will have to send less than 25 fire-fighters to rescue a seagull from a 3ft pond. Oh wait... they refused to go in; they just sat around and watched a member of the public go in. Yes, THIS happened. Click here. It's weird how all of these facts and figures were omitted from the programme, hmm?

Saving the best until last, the Ambulance Service came under attack for people having to wait. They opened with a tale of an elderly lady waiting on the floor for hours, with the addition of an interview from her daughter about how terrible this was. I agree. In an ideal world no one would have to wait for an ambulance, least of all our elderly population. Unfortunately, the medical world uses a triage system based on what the caller tells the call-taker. As horrible and uncomfortable as it is, an elderly lady with a knee injury is not a high priority and when there are only a handful of ambulances covering a large area priorities have to be made. In this instance it wasn't life or death. Who knows what other calls were in progress. Long have I banged on about the fact that time wasters and nonsense calls just need to be told 'NO'. Sadly, Panorama decided to interview Tony Hughes for the GMB union who decided to highlight the few calls that slip through the net and are wrongly triaged. SO WHAT?! Out of the millions of calls the services receive that is bound to happen every now and again. There are not enough ambulances and staff to send one to every single 999 call that comes in.  Fact.

What annoyed me most about the programme was the failure to highlight the cause of these delays and lack of ambulances. Yes, we have faced cuts like everyone else but as of yet it hasn't had a huge impact in the amount of ambulances working on the front-line. The problem is that the call volume is going up year on year. This wasn't mentioned once. Nor was the massively high proportion of calls that we go to that are a complete waste of time and resources. No mention of the alcohol related calls we go to, the hoaxes, the split nails, the stubbed toes, the headaches, the colds, the can't sleeps, the noise in ear, the finger injuries, the needing a lifts to hospitals; basically 80% of the work we do. No mention at all that the delays people are facing are caused by the public's misuse of its ambulance service. Despite all of that though, for the first time all of the services met the category A target of reaching 75% of life threatening calls within 8 minutes. Instead of leaving it there and heaping praise on the service they interview people to highlight the apparent cheating that is going on. Calls being downgraded to meet the target? Calls being upgraded to meet the target? Is there any proof that this goes on? All ambulance staff, myself included, moan about the conspiracies, the stitch ups and mis-categorising of calls, but personally I don't think this is done to meet targets. The categories of calls change as new information comes in and I think it's highly irresponsible of Panorama to throw out accusations without a scrap of evidence. Then again, who ever said investigative journalists were supposed to research...?!

In the presenter's introduction he said 'What happens when the ambulance service decides you're not sick enough to get an ambulance?' Well as far as I'm concerned the answer is pretty simple; you don't get an ambulance because you are not sick enough. If the public and the media want an ambulance immediately then give us a budget proportional to the calls we attend. Based on the London Fire Brigade's budget per calls they receive, the London Ambulance Service's budget should be around £3 billion a year. Now mirror that across the across the country and you'll see the shortfall we face. Just imagine how quickly we would arrive with that budget at our disposal! We could probably all sit around waiting for calls, practicing getting into our ambulance really quickly, sending 5 ambulances to an elderly faller and do countless public demonstrations of our equipment... ring any bells? People expect miracles and in this economic climate miracles are not going to happen. 

So, you dial 999....& wait?! Yes. That's life. Build a bridge and get over it.

You Tell Me

“19 year old, assault, head injury”

There are times in your life where you just have to say ‘whatever’ and move on. Be it with family relationships, spouses, work or whilst trying to argue your point to an Indian call centre; sometimes the point comes in any uphill battle where you just give up and walk away. Today was one of those moments.

We were called to a park by the police for a guy who had been in a fight. We arrived to a sea of blue lights, lots of coppers and various chavs scattered around. As we got out the cab a couple of cops came wandering towards us with our patient. ‘Patient’ is probably too kind... specimen is more appropriate. 

He was wearing some beige chinos which were elasticated around the ankles, some navy blue Toms with no socks and the most garish of Ralph Lauren polo shirts in the most ghastly mustard yellow colour. To go with this rotten ensemble he had a huge diamond (fake) stud in each ear, a gold cross round his neck (he so isn’t religious), an Omega watch (fake) too big for his skinny wrist and various tacky sovereign rings on his fingers. To top it off he went with one of these new types of baseball caps, I think they are called ‘Lidz’ and was wearing it to one side. He walked with what looked like a limp but I am reliable informed this is called a ‘bop’, he had lines shaved into his eyebrows and when he spoke he sounded like a cartoon character with something sticky stuck in his larynx with an awful grasp of the English language. Anyhoo, he ‘bopped’ past us in his handcuffs, up the steps and into the ambulance. 

The copper told us he had been punched, hence the cut above his eye but that was all they knew. He also told us that he had a chip on his shoulder and a hatred for all uniforms.

“Good luck!”

Well, this should be fun! 

“Right, what’s happened this evening?”

“You tell me, innit”

“Well I don’t know, I just arrived, that’s why I am asking you.”

“You’re the doctor.” he said in a very cocky tone.

“No I’m not, just tell me what’s happened.”

“You tell me.”

“Have you been punched?”

“You tell me.”

“Did you lose consciousness?”

“You tell me.”

“Why won’t you answer any of my questions?”

“You tell me”

“You’re acting like a child, just answer my questions and you can leave.”

“What did you say to me bruvs? WHAT...DID...YOU...SAY?”

“I said you’re acting like a child.”

“Don’t test me bruvs, I will cut you.”

I looked up at the copper and raised an eyebrow. He laughed!

“Firstly, I’m not your ‘bruvs’, secondly, you’re not going to do anything, now just tell me what’s happened.”

“You tell me” he chuckled to himself.

“Do you want us to treat you or not?”

“You tell me BRUVS.”

“We are done here.” I said to the copper, “He’s acting like a child.”

“Don’t step to me bruvs, I’ll end you, you fucked with da wrong nigga innit (he was white), you bes watch your back, I’ll be der waiting, do you know me, do you KNOW me?”

“You tell me...”

With that, he was grabbed by the handcuffs and dragged off the ambulance, staring at me the entire time. As he reached the bottom step he spat towards me and kissed his teeth. All that did was get him bundled to the floor. What a foul little animal. 

When did our youth end up like this? Why is there such little respect for any uniform? The Nanny-state we live in has allowed this Chav culture to breed and fester. They have quickly become well regarded as the rednecks of Britain. They have far too many rights; they know the law and the police can do very little. Parents do nothing to stop it and even schools allow it to continue. There is no discipline anymore; back chatting is tolerated and every figure of authority faces a struggle to impose themselves on these thugs. It makes me so angry looking at them, listening to them and being around them. Watching the death of the English language is horrible to see and a stand needs to be made before it becomes irreversible. Can you imagine these cretins working in the media; presenting TV programs & writing articles?! 

“Yes bruvs, welcome to the News at 10. Safe.” 

Their intimidation and aggression strikes fear amongst many and their threats of violence means they mostly go unchallenged and avoided. They hang around street corners drinking and smoking; generally causing a nuisance to all that go near them. They are parasites and should be treated as such. This ‘culture’ needs stopping in its tracks. 

Now, where do we start? You tell me...

A special relationship......

"22 year old male. Unconscious and bleeding heavily"

A weekend in the city wouldn't be the same without drink, drugs, violence, vomit, blood and blue lights. More often than not, all the above are on the first job of the night. Today was no different. We were on station but our shift hadn't started yet. In a garage that holds 8 ambulances and 8 cars, our truck sat alone & being a Sunday night there was no management around and no admin staff. It was just us doing our VDI when the phone rang. We had already spoken to control to give our fleet number and skill level so they knew we were there so we had to answer! It was a begging phone call pleading for us to start early as there was a Cat A call and no other resources to send. Obviously we obliged, so not really knowing if we were missing anything we shot out the garage. It was only 3 miles we had to travel but doing that at 18:00 on the day of a Spurs vs Arsenal match and heading to Tottenham causes bit of a tricky drive. That aside, we arrived about 15 minutes later to a sea of blue lights. In the road was a guy lying on his back surrounded by police. As I stepped out the vehicle I could see a considerable amount of blood on the WPC's hands. The closer I got, the more blood I could see on all of their hands. What a mess!

The guy had been stabbed numerous times in the leg and once in the stomach and he wasn't in good way. He was pale, sweating and very drowsy. The police were applying fantastic pressure to the wounds so I took a moment to come up with a plan whilst listening to a vague handover. No one was exactly sure of what happened but what they did know was that a large crowd of 'anti emergency service' youths was gathering and were shouting abuse at us and the police. I called for HEMS back up or an FRU. In fact I believe I actually said "send me anything". If ever there was a reply which summed up David Cameron's reign of terror on front line services this was this:

"Sorry, we a spread thin. HEMS are tied up and there is nothing else available at the moment. We've got A & E support running from 13 miles away but until then you'll have to make do. As soon as something comes up I'll send them. Sorry guys"

Still think cuts to emergency services is wise? Hmmm! I wanted someone who could assist in major trauma. No disrespect to A & E support but they are not even aloud to do an ECG or give Calpol. They would be as useful as a chocolate teapot. It was us and the police. I started cutting the guys clothes off. He was panicking but we were far to pre-occupied with his life threatening injuries to be able to talk to him. Cue the police. Not only are their 12 officers trying to keep the crowd back, trying to protect us from some missiles that were being thrown but were applying pressure to wounds, opening dressing, passing us kit and constantly re-assuring our patient. No instructions needed. They just did it. The main source of bleeding was his groin. It was an arterial bleed and was taking all of my energy to apply the pressure needed to slow it down. My crew mate was placing orange cannulas (wide bore cannulas for trauma) in both his arms and drawing up fluids. It was a real mess. 

I was aware of two things. Firstly, the crowd was becoming angrier by the minute and things were getting rather volatile between them and the officers who were now almost making a cordon around us. Secondly, our patient may well die where he lay if we didn't move soon. Again, without prompting the trolley bed appeared. The police knew we had no hands to do it our self. Normally we'd use a scoop or sheet to lift someone but with the number of bodies we had at our disposal it was just a case of lift and run. We got him on board and put in the blue call to the trauma centre. As we were about to leave an FRU turned up. He dumped his car and at our request, drove the ambulance. In the back was me and my crew mate and three cops. The three who had saved our patients life. We arrived at hospital and bundled into resus. The guy was transferred and hospital staff took over from us. Off we went to the blood bath that was our truck. There was blood everywhere, everyone was saturated but it was a good job done by all. 

This job itself would have stood up well as a blog in it's own right but for me it was a great example of the special relationship between the ambulance service and the second best emergency service; the police! (sorry guys, couldn't miss out on the banter). No matter what the job is, there is a respect and admiration between the two of us. We wave as we pass each other on the road (take note fire brigade) and there is always a welcoming look of relief when one of us arrives at the others scene. This was a perfect example of two public services working well together for one purpose. The police come under a lot of stick and put up with much more abuse and violence than we do and normally shrug it off as being part of the job but that isn't good enough. They are a fantastic bunch of people who do the toughest job in the most difficult of circumstances. This country is lucky to have such an outstanding force and the sooner that is recognised by the mindless minority the better. This guy WOULD have died, I have no doubt, if the police hadn't done what they did but it won't gain them any respect or thanks from the idiots who abuse them. It wasn't their job. It was ours but they did what they had to do. I wrote a letter of thanks to their police station, only knowing their shoulder number. I hope it got to them. That's the funny thing. There are so money different police and so many different ambulance crews, most of the time we are working along side officers we have never met yet the respect and professionalism never wavers. Time after time, we call them when there is even a hint of danger and they come running. I'll always be in their debt and as such will always be more than willing to give my call sign, even on the ninth time of asking. Bless 'em!

Not quite as given...

"23 year old male, stabbed in the ribs, meet police at RVP, suspect ? on scene"

This job was the grand finale of what for me was a career defining weekend. In a break from the norm I had the same crew mate for my Friday to Sunday nights. At the time I was a relief so having the same crew mate for consecutive shifts was a rarity. To have the same crew mate for three consecutive shifts was unheard of. It was late on sunday evening and we'd had a great few shifts. We'd seen and done everything; delivered 3 babies (again, unheard of), had a cardiac arrest, cut the roof off a car, had a CVA, two MIs, a hypo and a status EP to name but a few. Being relatively new I hadn't seen much and gaining so much experience with a Pped (mentor) who let me actually do stuff was great! When this job came down to us it was met with laughter. Of course we had a stabbing! Off we went. roof lit up and sirens blaring. There is something much more enjoyable about driving on lights in the dark. Maybe it feels more like the movies! As we got near the RVP we got a message to say the police we on scene so we went straight to the address. Due to the amount of police cars we had to park about 20 meters form the house so we grabbed everything we needed and wondered over. From the moment we arrived at the front gate we knew this job was going to test us.

In a scene reminiscent of an episode of CSI we followed the gravitational blood drops up the path to the front door. The door knob were smeared in blood as was the frosted glass. We stepped inside and my boot slipped in a small pool of blood. Grim! Ahead was a long hallway leading to the living at the back of the house. Along the Victoria mosaic tiled floor was a long trailed smear of blood like the death of Malone in the Untouchables! It was quite a harrowing sight to be honest. There were hand prints of blood all over the William Morris wall paper throughout the length of the hall. In the doorway was a copper who looked truly terrified. I think the same look crept across my face as I entered the room. There I was standing there, bag in hand with 9 pairs of eyes fixed on me. The information we had been given wasn't entirely accurate. It was a stabbing but wasn't a 23 year old male. It was 3 x 23 year old males, all with 3-4 stab wounds to their chest. The was blood everywhere, each patient had their own cop who was trying desperately to stop the bleeding. All the patients look like crap. A grey complexion, eyes rollong around their sockets. My heart was pounding so fast I thought it was going jump out of my chest. I froze for a few seconds and off we went. My crew mate headed to the one who looked on deaths door. I took the other two who were next to each other on the sofa. 

I'd never done a stabbing so had never seen a stab wound. These were particularly bad stab wounds. As one of them was breathing I could see his accessory muscles move inside the wound. This was above both of our pay grades. We called for two more ambulances and HEMS. We continued to assess and prepare a handover for the other crews. All the stab wounds were dressed in three sided dressing, basic OB's were taken and the police were utilised. It was frantic. There were dressings everywhere, my crew mate did a production line of cannulation while I drew up bag after bag of fluids. After what seemed like an age the other crews began arriving. Eventually there were 18 people in the room, all fighting to keep these boys alive. HEMS took charge and began arranging extraction of them all. The police started moving the mass of vehicles that were blocking the road while ultrasounds where done and we let the hospital know what we were bringing in. The decision was made for all three to go to the same trauma centre as it was a thoracic specialist. In each each ambulance was a crew,  a member of HEMS, a cop and a patient. The convoy of 3 x ambulances, a DSO, an FRU, a HEMS car and 4 police cars headed off through the streets of east London reminiscent of a Presidential motorcade. This was it. This is why I started this job. This was what we trained for. This is the perception of the life and death on the streets people imagine.


Some forward thinking by the hospital had got all the other ambulances cleared from the entrance. We drove up the ramp and all reversed into our bays watched by 5 other tucks. The blue lights were reflecting off all the buildings around us and the vehicles just kept piling in. Each with our respective patient we headed down the long corridor towards the waiting resus teams and what a sight. About 40 staff awaited us; Nurses, Doctors, Registrars, Surgeons, Consultants, Radiographers the lot. We transferred our patients across and I stepped back to listen to the HEMS handover. As I did a hand rested on my shoulder.


"You're up! It's your patient, you know what to say, just take your time, you'll be fine"


The consultant demanded quiet for the handover and all the eyes on my trauma team fixated on me as I glanced at my PRF and stepped forward. Despite not stopping for air I made to to the end and everyone jumped to work on. I retreated back to the safety of my ambulance and a well earned cigarette. We had our customary HEMS debrief where we get to ask questions and they get to tell us how well we did. It is basically an exercise to make them feel intelligent and reassure us that we did what we should have. 


Despite the obvious issues raised by the prevalence of knife crime to me that wasn't what this job was about. For the first time in my career I felt confident that I had done what I had to, well, and under extreme pressure without needing a safety net. The fact that parts of the job were becoming second nature was comforting and reassuring. To be honest, I struggled a lot at training school and until this point wasn't convinced becoming a paramedic was within my grasp. This job changed that and i'll always look back with fond memories as the time I ceased to be a newbie.

The Concrete Jungle

"19 year old male, ? Heroin overdose, history of violence *LOCATION MATCH"

First job of the day, it was early on a sunday morning, we were tired and a tad grouchy. As soon as the job came down our radio started ringing.

"Don't approach, police on route, the patient is violent. Hold for police"

Dur!! As if we were going to be cavalier.  Location match is a red flag. Previous crews have flagged the address as dangerous so either he has been violent or someone in the address has been violent. We would be waiting and then hiding behind lots of police officers! We arrived at the same time so grabbed our stuff and followed them up. It was in the middle of a council estate and one the countries largest. It contains almost 2000 homes and although still popular with the elderly residents, due to schemes like 'care in the community', problems came to fruition when large volumes of vulnerable and disadvantaged people became isolated from society. Concrete jungles like this are vast. This particular one has over 6000 residents and takes 20 minutes to walk from one side to another. The road network through the estate is scattered and complex making navigating for us and patrolling for police extremely difficult. In all seriousness the area is simply too large to police effectively and as such it became a breeding ground for crime, drugs and antisocial behaviour. On an estate where deprivation and violence are commonplace, hopeless life is the norm leaving children without ambition and little prospect of bucking the trend.

As a result, we end up with our patient. A 19 year old male, high on drugs, unemployed with a criminal record longer than the ancient scrolls of Jerusalem. He had no education, his mum was an alcoholic and his dad was in prison. His 3 brothers were all in the same boat as him. We entered the block via the large metal door, a small window hole showed the remnants of the glass that had once been there, bloodied tissues lied in pools of urine and tinfoil stained with crack drifted around the stairwell like autumn leaves. As we climbed the stairs, passing the masses of graffiti we could could hear the commotion. He was smashing up the flat. He was high on MDMA and Trips. He was hallucinating and being violent towards neighbours and his family. We didn't get near him. The police brought him to us already restrained. There wasn't much for us to do other than monitor him. He needed to be sedated at the hospital so for us it was a bit of a non job but it highlighted the problems we, the police, the government and the residents of council estates face.

This job was symptomatic of the problems that are common place all over the country. There are over 6 million people living on council estates in Britain and a large percentage of these people are living in properties that are rundown, isolated and abandoned. In the heart of every thriving city in Britain is a second city. A city hidden from visitors. A city hidden from public view. A city the government would like to forget. A city where more often than not, good people are kept prisoners by the fear of gang rule. And what chance do the police have? A few years ago on this estate, there were 6 officers and a sergeant dedicated to patrolling the area. Admittedly that isn't much for the size of it but dropping it to just 2 beat officers under the Tories has seen a lot of the good work undone. Despite the £12.5 billion flurry of initiative under recent governments promising the 'big society', promising community improvement, promising re-galvanisation, promising criminal justice and promising more policing the mish-mash of projects has produced very few results and have made little to no dent in the growing level of violence and drug abuse in deprived urban areas. Street violence, drug dealing, robbery and burglary have risen and the much vaunted Anti-Social-Behaviour-Orders have become a prize more than punishment.

These estates cause a huge financial burden on the tax payer in both policing costs, medical cost and benefit costs. Unemployment is high, benefit fraud is rife and crime is huge. With unemployment so high it is of little surprise that poor diets and abuse of drugs and alcohol cause a strain on ambulance trusts and local hospitals. This job alone required 12 police officers and an ambulance, let alone the hospital stay and the administration costs of sending him back to prison for breaching his bail. Then there are the costs of keeping him in prison. Multiply this un-isolated job by every estate the country over and it is painfully clear why a decade of broken promises and failed costly initiatives have put the country in a state of economic fragility. Fix housing, fix policing and fix the benefit system and you'll go some way to fix these communities. Or instead we could spend £10 billion on hosting the Olympic, allow bankers multi-million pound bonuses from tax payers profits and fund ailing countries in the Eurozone. The problems faces by communities all over the country can be summed up by one word: Poverty. Poverty of income, poverty of opportunity and poverty of expectation. Poverty is a term we use for 3rd world countries but it is a real problem that exists in our own country. A country billed as 7th richest in the world. Something isn't right is it?

Poverty in the UK

• Worst in the EU, longest working hours, lowest social spending
• By EU decency threshold the minimum wage should be £7.87. It's £4.98
• Three times more UK children fall beneath the poverty threshold than in 1970
• The base wage for the bottom tenth of the population is worse than 30 years ago (relative)

Crime in the UK

• 1% of the population suffers 59% of all violent crime
• 2% of the population suffers 41% of all property crime
• Most criminals commit crime within 1.8 miles of their home. 92% of these criminals live on council estates consumed by poverty and criminalised by war against drugs
• A lone 18 year-old woman with a child is five times more likely than average to suffer from crime

Homes in the UK

• Almost 6 million people - 10% of the population live in Britain's 2.9 million council homes
• A further 3 million live in homes that have left council control since 1988 through 'Right to buy schemes'
• Since the public sector reforms in the 70s many traditional jobs done by council tenants have been contracted to private companies making tenants less secure and worse paid. 62% earn less, 73% have fewer holidays, 53% have worse sick pay, 51% have worse pensions and 44% have less security

The longer these council estates are left to rot, the bigger the social disparity will become, the higher the crime rates will be and worse off this country as a whole will be. Lets get our own house in order before we try and fix others.

I smell a rat

"25 year old female, collapsed"

It is extremely rare for a 25 year to collapse from anything other than drink or drugs. If it is genuine there is normally an underlying medical condition like epilepsy or diabetes. Seeing as it was on a weekday morning in a shopping centre and due to the low priority nature of the call it had the billing of complete and utter LOB. Shopping centres are generally pretty dire places to access. It normally involves being met at a service entrance by a security guard with a very poor grasp of the English language and then directed through a maze of corridors and service lifts to the back rooms of whatever shop you're called too. Obviously, all the kit and a chair (just in case) need to be carried all this way too. Massive pain the the proverbial! Today was no different.

'Access vie service gate E, south side, escort to meet crew at gate'

Arse! Just as we feared! We pulled up, grabbed everything we may need, knowing in all likelihood we wouldn't need anything but better to have and not need than need and not have. After what seemed like an age we arrived in the back rooms of Primark. And let me assure you, the back rooms are of similar high quality to their stock! We were directed to a white door. A door without a window and a digital keypad entry system. A small blue sign was screwed to the door. 'Detention Room'. The penny dropped. 'Collapse' was code for 'Caught'. Sure enough, inside was our shoplifter....sorry, patient, feigning unconsciousness on the floor. A few quick checks, some painful stimuli and the audible threat of a nasal airway soon roused her to GCS 15 albeit with chest pain. And may I add, it was GCS 15 with a chip the size of Peru on her shoulder.

Despite my attempts at reasoning with her and laying out in simple English that pretending to be ill would have no positive effect on her wishes not to be arrested, she persisted with her ailments. I explained the waste of resources, the costs she was causing and the possible consequences of wasting an ambulance. Nothing. Whilst I continued to hit my head against a brick wall the police arrived. They had already reviewed the CCTV so when faced with denial they spelt it out plain and simple

"We watched you fill your bag with clothes and then walk out of the shop without paying. You are being arrested. If you continue down the illness route I can assure you I will double the length of time in the cells."

The total value of the goods she had stolen was £13.50. She had also been on the take in Matallan, this time forgetting to pick things without security tags. Hook, line and sinker. If you're going to risk arrest, risk prison and risk a criminal record at least make it worth your while! Strangely, as soon as she was caught by security guards cue the collapse, cue the chest pain, cue the inability to talk, cue the dizziness. Call me a cynic but I smell a rat.......And so did everyone else. Luckily for me the prospect of a prolonged stay in the cells encouraged the thieving little toe rag to make a miraculous full recovery. Despite her now medical well being her unparallelled insistence of innocence was laughable. It never ceases to amaze me the lies and stories people fabricate despite being faced with conclusive undeniable evidence.  Luckily for us we were done and didn't have to listen to her spouting off about the injustices and conspiracies that were being levelled against her. We could leave. Jobs a good'un!

Was it worth it?...

"Running call, male fallen off motorbike"

We had been called to an 1 month old cardiac arrest. After a slightly manic drive and a brisk walk up 3 flights of stairs we were greeted by the FRU with a crying baby in his arms. Clearly not as given! The baby had vomited some milk. Perfectly normal one might think but for the mother, it warranted an ambulance. Despite the apparent well being of our patient due to a service policy of conveying under 2s to hospital, off we went.  Our route to hospital took us on a rather large duel carriage way. It was about 6pm, rush hour, dark and raining. A motorcycle overtook me at about 60mph, then proceeded to swerve in-front of me. His back wheel was all over the place and then he lost it. His bike went over and he was thrown up into the air. Everything seemed to stop and produce clarity, I was watching him fly through the air in slow motion, his arms waving, his body rotating, helpless to stop, bracing for impact. Suddenly, it sped up again. I slammed on my breaks, stopping feet from his bike and he hit the floor. He bounced and rolled. And rolled. And rolled. He came to a stop. He was lying on the bank of grass on side of the road, motionless. 

I jumped out the truck, grabbed some bags and went over too him. Amazingly he was conscious, albeit in pain. My crew mate called control and requested a second ambulance. Due to the winter pressures however, there was no one available. A car was on route but that was all for now. I began assessing the patient, amazingly, he only appeared to have cuts and bruises. A possible fractured leg but nothing serious. No head injury, no apparent spinal injury. Needless to say, we treated for a spinal injury, he was collared and boarded, his leathers were cut off and he was fully immobilised. His voice was a bit slurred and initially I put it down to concussion but the more we spoke the more I wasn't convinced. Eventually the FRU arrived. Due to the lack of second ambulance we decided to put our mother and baby in the car and we'd take the motorcyclist and then we'd all go to the same hospital. We loaded him on to the truck, in the dry and re-assessed. Out of the rain and the wind it became clear exactly why he lost control. He was drunk. And not just a little bit drunk, he was plastered. 

We requested the police and headed off to hospital. He was 18 years old, had just started university and delivered pizzas in the evenings. In fact, he stated he was on his way to work. His boss and rung him to say he was supposed to be there and rather than say he'd been drinking all day, decided to go in. He had had over 3 litres of cider and numerous shots throughout the afternoon and didn't really see the ramifications of what was going on. He was only 18 with his life in front of him, he was going to be arrested, he was going to be charged and going to be convicted of drink driving. He was going to have a criminal record. He would have a fine to pay. He was going to lose his licence, he was going to lose his job. He was going to lose his income, he going to lose his independence and was going to seriously effect his future employability. Despite all of this his main concern was whether or not his bike was OK. I didn't have an ounce of sympathy for him. I tried to explain that the law about drink driving isn't there to be a killjoy. It's there to save lives. He is lucky no other vehicle was involved. He was lucky that the powers that be protect drunk people form serious injury. He was lucky he wasn't killed. He was lucky he didn't kill anyone. He didn't seem to care.

We arrived at the hospital and wheeled him to the corridor where we waited our turn to handover.  Moments later the police arrived. Being strapped down to a board he didn't see them walk in, it wasn't until one of their faces peered over his that he realised just exactly what he'd done and what the consequences were. Que the penny dropping. Que the tears. Que the remorse. Que the request for mum. Que the fear. Que the handcuffs.

Human Rights? Sorry, my bad......

"42 Male, ? Diabetic problems, ? Intoxicated, Police on scene"

In my experience, a ? is usually a fact when alcohol is concerned. This patient was going to be intoxicated. Regarding the diabetic problems I assumed the police had requested us because the patient was a) Diabetic b) They wanted to make sure he was medically fit enough to be arrested. Sceptical, yes, but I was correct on both counts. We drove down the alley way and were met at the bottom of the steel staircase which led to the flats by one of the coppers. He briefly told us the guy was drunk, under arrest but was a diabetic and was screaming stuff about insulin. And we could hear the shouting from the bottom of the 30 or so steps. Joy! We made our way up the stairs and entered the room. There were 7 cops in there and our patient, handcuffed, writhing around on the floor.

"Careful, he's a spitter"

Foul mouthed expletives were free flowing from him, most of which were racist. He himself was of Iraqi origin but that didn't stop the racial slurs towards the Black, White, Asian and Sikh officers standing around him. They were all amazingly calm and professional and were just leaving him to it. A few quick checks and it became clear, medically he was fine. Unfortunately he then did a pseudo fit followed by feigned unconsciousness. Credit where credit due it was a great effort on both counts. To the untrained eye they were convincing. Sadly for us, due to the duration he kept the act up for the police wanted him taking to hospital. They arranged removal to the ambulance which was a joy to watch. 6 cops carrying a large man, pretending to be unconscious down a large metal flight of stairs in the dark. Eventually he was on our taxi and strapped to the bed. Once I was aboard he began hitting himself in the face with his handcuffs making his mouth and gums bleed.  We headed off to the nearest hospital. I'd like to add at this point it was my least favourite hospital. In fact, I detested it.

The patient appeared to have calmed down and I began asking him the basic question need for my paperwork. I asked him if he was registered with a GP. He starred at me blankly and then without warning spat a full mouthful of blood into face. The police pounced on him covering his face with a swine flu mask.  I cut open a bag of saline fluid and began flushing my eye. We arrived at hospital and I went straight to the sink. I ran the tap over my face, cleaned it with soap but I had been exposed. What to? No idea. He wasn't known to the hospital and wouldn't answer any questions about his health. Because he was under arrest he was obliged to provide a blood sample. I provided one and after a lengthy discussion with the consultant of A & E we decided to hold off on prophylactics until the following day pending blood test result. The risk of intra-ocular contamination is very low but the risk is there all the same. The police left with the patient a few hours later and I went back to work. The rest of the shift passed without incident.

The next afternoon I phoned and phoned and phoned the hospital. No answer. That evening I made the 40 mile journey from where I lived back to the A & E to get the results. I waited and waited and waited. I sat there for 4 hours constantly badgering the staff to find out the delay. A sheepish looking Dr eventually came over.

"I'm afraid both blood samples have been lost"

My opinion of the hospital was clearly justified. They had lost the lot. His sample for testing and my serum save. So I said I wanted to go on prophylactics to be safe.

"I'm afraid it's too late to start them now"

Of course it is. I've been here for 6 hours and have been ringing for 6 before that. No wonder it's too late. I said I wanted to get another sample from him to find out what he did or didn't have.

"I'm afraid it's against his human rights to request another blood sample. He's been discharged and is no longer a patient"

Of course it is. Must protect his rights mustn't we. Don't worry about mine. I now have to be jabbed and prodded to 12 months until I can get an all clear. I decided to contact the police and request a blood sample from them. Eventually I got through to one of the arresting officers.

"I'm afraid he was released without charge this morning once he had sobered up, he isn't obliged to provide another sample. We can ask him but if he says no there is nothing we can do"

Guess what? He said no. I asked about pressing charges for assault. I got an all to familiar response when asking about spitters.

"It probably wouldn't go anywhere as there is no physical injury"

Erm, possible blood contamination?!?! It was like talking to a brick wall. No one wanted to know. Too much time had passed and the animal was protected by his human rights bubble. When will assaults on staff be taken seriously? So what if there is a lot of paperwork involved. We have rights too. Surely we have a right to know if we have been infected? Apparently not.

Compensation: £0

Days sick: 0

Apology from patient: Pending....

Apology from hospital: Pending....

By the way, I got the all clear over a year ago but it still irks me. My employer was extremely supportive and provided everything that they could. It's a shame the hospital and police couldn't provide the same.

Zero tolerance? Afraid not.........

"45 year old female, obnoxious asthma sufferer"

It was about 11pm, we had been to a lovely old guy who had had a fall and popped him to the local hospital. We stood patiently in the corridor waiting to hand over to the hospital staff. About 10 ft away was a middle aged woman sitting in a hospital wheel chair. She was obese, not very well dressed, her hair was that of a wild banshee and she had a very large chip on her shoulder. From what I gathered, she had been brought in my ambulance about 20 minutes ago for an apparent asthma attack.

The reason I noticed her was the swearing and shouting.

"Oi, am I booked in? I need a fucking bed, I'm ill"

She repeatedly barked abuse at any staff who walked passed and all that did swerved around her like she was a leper. I'm assuming she was well known to staff and had previous for this behaviour.

"I need a fucking bed, I've got asthma" (pronounced ass-em-eeer)

She was pretty relentless with requests for treatment. A few staff explained that there were many other sicker patients in front of her but she didn't seems to care. To be honest she didn't look or sound like someone suffering an asthma attack so I'm not at all surprised she was sat in a chair.

"Iv'e got asthma, you have to treat me. You're supposed to give me nebuliser (pronounced Nebooo-lizer) within 15 minutes, it said so on the news. I'm iller than all these people, I need a fucking bed"

Everyone appeared more amused than annoyed up until this point but when here abusive requests were ignored she began a torrent of racial abuse at a couple of nurses. Her ignorance was quite horrible to watch. What a sorry state our society is in when people like this are unashamedly able to voice these vile opinions and selfish demands. She wasn't ill, she was simply draining resources. Security arrived to subdue her and she got seen by a doctor in the corridor. What annoys me is nothing will happen, there will be no repercussions, no punishment. She will continue to repeatedly abuse A & E, probably claiming every benefit and disability allowance under the sun. Her racist abuse won't be punished and hospital staff will continue to treat her. And why? Surely when someone abuses staff their right to treatment is relinquished. At what point will the NHS and society as a whole just say No!

No, we won't accept this.

No, we won't treat you.

No, you can't have your benefits.

No, this isn't the end of it.

Yes, you have to leave.

Yes, the police have been called.

Yes, we are pressing charges.

Yes, you are never welcome in this hospital again.

Take this hard line, 0 tolerance approach and maybe just maybe things will slowly begin to change. In reality, she'll be discharged and be back within a few days, dishing out the same abuse as she does every time and as her abuse gets her seen what incentive is there for her to stop. There are similar signs on every ambulance and in every hospital stating:

In order to ensure that all patients attending this department receive the treatment that they need, it is essential that our staff are able to work without fear of attack, abuse or harassment. This Trust views its staff as its most valuable asset and therefore any abuse to those staff is totally unacceptable. Police assistance will always be requested when violent incidents occur and the Trust will support staff that wish to bring private prosecutions against the perpetration of physical abuse. 

In reality this hard line isn't followed. Police, if they turn up, defuse the situation but rarely make arrests. If they do no charges are made once the person has sobered up. Every day staff are subjected to this abuse but no one wants to be the person who refuses treatment, just in case. Again, the fear of backlash and litigation is palpable and while that fear exists nothing will change.

Whilst all this was going on our patient waited quietly and patiently and was thankful to us and all hospital staff for the help he had received. I bed he had to wait longer for his treatment than she did though.

Gangs, Knifes and Amnesia

"19 year old male, stabbed in back"

Working in a city, we see our fair share of knife crime. It happens much more regularly than the media report. In reality you only hear about it on the news if its a teenager who has been stabbed or rich white man was stabbed by a black man. In practice, stabbings occur every single day and 99% of it is young males in gangs. The dispiriting truth about the cities gang culture is that it is not only large, with at least 100 gangs, but it attracts ever younger children. There must be worthwhile alternatives for young people to gang membership, not just limited to sports centers. Education is the most powerful force for change: government-driven improvements in schools in deprived areas will, it is hoped, offer teenagers more fundamental alternatives to the gangs, by providing them with the skills and discipline to aspire to employment and further education rather than an existence as drug-pushers.

The London riots showcased to the world the gang culture that exists and the roots of these appalling events are many and complex but none more so than the way Britain's educational establishment has cringed helplessly in the face of ever increasing gang culture; a culture that rejects every tenet of liberal society. It's violent, it's sexist, it's homophobic and it's racist. Unfortunately,  it is broadly tolerated by many people in the poorer communities, which has lost control of its teenage youths. Those youths scare the wits out of teachers and social workers, the public and police officers. Knife crime is rife and not enough is being done to stop it. There is no parity in sentencing for offenders, not enough police resources available to tackle the issue head on and not enough incentives for these young people to buck the trend. In London alone (I choose London because they are the easiest statistics to find!), there were 7,231 knife crimes in 2010/2011, a 29% increase on 2008. There sits evidence enough that the issue is not being tackled and whilst there are Conservative promises of more cuts to front line police the numbers will simply increase.

We were called to an address in rough part of town. Music was blaring, there were scores of people loitering with intent outside the address, buzz words such as 'retribution' and 'revenge' were being branded about. This was clearly gang related but for us, the problem with gang related stabbing is the clear and concise history! Our guy was stood in the living room, tempers were high, testosterone at critical levels and don't even get me started on their dress sense! He however was topless, bleeding from a rather large stab would in his back. I was concerned about the levels of air entry in his left lung and was keen to treat as I found, however, he didn't want treatment, he wanted to go out, I assume, tooled up looking to hit back at the rival gang. Nether the less, the police assured him he would be going to hospital. Now the history.

"So what exactly happened?"

"I don't know"

"What were you stabbed with?"

"I don't know"

"Who stabbed you? Was there a gang of them?"

"Can't remember"

"Did you get in a confrontation?"

"No"

"Where did this happen?"

"Cant remember"

"So you were just walking alone, realised you had been stabbed, but didn't see anyone, hear anything or feel anything?"

"Nah, I got back to yard yeah and my home boy told me I was bleeding, innit"

Wow! Amnesia is so frustrating. To loose the memory of such a memorable event must be a nightmare. How on earth will the police catch the bad guy? In a word, they won't. They will continue to chase their under-resources tails until they come across another teen. Dead. Stabbed by the guy with amnesia. And why? I can't remember!

This guy didn't die but also didn't appreciate the significance of what had happened. It was just another day. Gang life. It comes with the territory. For too long, the less affluent areas of society have been left to breed this hatred and it is now endemic. The softly softly approach clearly doesn't work, job and financial incentives are futile because more money can be eared in pushing drugs. What is needed is 0 tolerance, long prison sentences, removal of benefits, confiscation of property. What the government needs to do is give the police the powers to stop this mindless violence and criminality in its tracks but instead, they have a different solution. 16000 less officers! Genius! That'll fix the problem!


#AntiWinsorNetwork