Days off

A short blog this week as I have had a few days off this week so time to get out on my motorbike , catch up with some jobs at home and enjoy a take away.

A trip up to London yesterday to collect daughter from uni combined with a visit to the London Musuem of Water and Steam a great place if you are into that kind of thing.

There have been lots of posts on social media giving great feedback on the JESIP app, if you could be involved in managing an incident well worth downloading. It gives some great information and prompts on the principles of JESIP and how they should be embedded in our practice.

Time to enjoy the rugby now.

More next week.

Busy, busy, busy

This week has seen me on nights over the weekend. Busy doesn't really sum it up!
As with all emergency services weekends bring a new set of challenges. Across the country it seems the NHS is creaking under the weight of demand put on it.
All three of my nights have been spent managing trolley waits in my local two acute hospital trusts.
Before even thinking about anything else I would like to give credit to the ambulance crews and hospital staff who have worked so hard to minimise these waits and  to continue to deliver high levels of care under difficult conditions.
So how do we solve this problem? If you can come up with an answer that does not cost money your on to a winner. Seriously though there is no magic cure , no magic wand that is going to sort these delays out. There are many systems  in place to help reduce the number of calls to ambulance services and reduce the number of patients that are conveyed to hospital emergency departments.
Do people expect to much from their ambulance services and hospitals, could their problem be dealt with by someone different. The answer is probably yes on both counts however do the public know how to access these other services , do they know that their GP surgery may be open over the weekend? Do they know that their pharmacist can help with lots of every day problems.
So how do we get those messages out there, press releases, adverts on TV and radio, social media.
As clinicians we also need to ensure we make use of the alternative pathways available to us to avoid admissions where possible.

Did someone mention social media? There are many health care professionals and organisations actively using social media to help deliver important messages to the wider community and far more use of this will be seen in the future.
This week also sees the budget and I like most of my colleagues wait to see what this will bring and the impacts it may have on us and our services.

Variety, the spice of life

Another week gone and what a busy and varied one it has been.

I spent Monday to Wednesday on day shifts as operational officer for East Dorset. This involved a variety of tasks including scene command at a RTC, attending two fires both of which were false alarms luckily, as well as responding to other incidents.

By far the majority of my time was spent dealing with ambulance delays at the two local acute hospitals. Ambulance delays impact on our ability to deliver care to the local community however the one thing that was obvious this week is the huge amount of effort that hospital staff put in to try and solve these problems.

Combined working across the whole of the hospitals and partner organisations ensures that these delays are kept as short as possible.

Today was spent carrying out a my career conversation with a member of my team and a workplace health and safety inspection. 

As you can see a varied week with a variety of challenges that what makes my job so intresting.

Interoprability

As February draws to a close I am still on target to blog at least once a week. 

After the tragic events this week at Didcot my thoughts are with all of those involved.

From a professional point of view the high level of interoperability displayed by all those involved shows that initiatives such as JESIP and regular training and exercises involving all responding agencies is working. As with the recent floods there was cross border support and mobilisation of national assets to provide support to the local resources. All of this leads to one thing that all those, responding have a single overarching aim and are well trained and experinced in interagency working.

Next week sees the largest interagency exercise ever carried out in London. Exercise Unified Response will test all of the responding agencies in both live play and command post exercise. I am sure there will be huge media coverage of this exercise and further information is available via the London Fire Brigade website.

As with all exercises and real incidents there will be joint learning taking place both during the incident and during the debriefs. It is important that lessons learned are shared to the wider responding community and the JESIP iniative to ensure this happens is a brilliant ongoing piece of work nationally.

For those of you within a category 1 or 2 responder organisation do you know what your role or responsibilty would be during a major or significant incident? Have you taken part in table top, command post or live play exercise? As I have said above regular training and exercising between responders can only lead to improved responses to incidents.

Sharing our roads

So do you think you are a good driver or rider? 

Everyone feels their driving or riding is good but how do we know? When was the last time you looked at the Highway Code?

Have you had a accident or near miss on the road recently? Who's fault was it , what was the cause? Having thought about it is there anything you can do to change your driving or riding?

As the roads get busier and we have to share our road space with more and more users it is essential that we all play our part in keeping each other safe.

So what can we do to improve our standards? 

There are lots of organisations and iniatives out there which do you choose, which ones best for you?

Advance riding groups have often been seen as BMW , pipe and slippers this is not the case and any training which makes you think about the way you ride has to help.

A great place to start is your local Bike Safe course run during the year by your local police traffic unit. It is probably the only time you won't be worried with the police following you! You will get an observed ride and feedback on where improvements can be made. This may lead you to go onto looking at the ROSPA or IAM training.

As a driver there are local ROSPA and IAM groups which offer training and assessment.

Any of these will improve your driving or ridding but the biggest feedback from any one who has taken part in any of these iniatives is that it makes your riding or driving more fun and enjoyable but more importantly safer.

So with the better weather coming why not give it a go?

Distant memory

So January has gone already! Where did it go? New Years Eve seems a distant memory and what about those new year resolutions?
Demand appears to be increasing and across the country ambulance trusts are looking at ways to improve their response to this increase.
Community responders form a essential part of these plans and provide valuable emergency care to their local community. Could you spare time to join your local team.? Contact your local ambulance trust if you could.
Voluntary agencies provide support and work in partnership with the emergency services and recently  the floods have led to high profile news stories showing joint working. Like any organisation the 'foot troops' are those that are seen but they need the back room support so even if you are not able to commit to working at the sharp end you may have other skills that these groups may be able to make use of. Go on give it a go.

Safety Advisory Group (SAG)meeting

This morning I have been at the Poole Safety Advisory Group (SAG) meeting. what does the SAG do, who forms it, why are they important?

Have you attended an event in Poole over the past year? The Poole Quay Boat Show, Poole Food Festival, Arry Paye Day, a funfair, Party in The Park, Broadstone Christmas Parade and many others have all been reviewed by the SAG.

SAGs are usually co-ordinated by the Local Authority (LA) and made up of representatives from the LA, emergency services, other relevant bodies and the event organiser. 

SAGs provide a forum for discussing and advising on public safety at an event. They aim to help organisers with the planning, and management of an event and to encourage cooperation and coordination between all relevant agencies. They are non-statutory bodies and so do not have legal powers or responsibilities, and can not prohibit events from taking place.

Discussions may extend beyond an organiser’s duty to comply with workplace health and safety law and even the boundaries of an event site, to include considering the impact on the local transport network and civil contingencies in the event of an emergency. The advice provided by the SAG and any decisions taken should be proportionate to the risk profile of the event.

The SAG advise the event organiser about public safety matters that they think need further consideration, explaining their reasons. It is the event organiser’s responsibility to take any appropriate action. 

So as you can see the SAG is there to support event organisers and ensure public safety at events.

Several exciting events were discussed this morning and lots of events  are coming up this year.