Christmas is really coming

A few things have gone on  this week  a planning meeting for a table top exercise in the new year, collecting my daughter from uni for the Christmas break and some Christmas shopping. I have a few more days off before returning to work on Friday.
Like many others in the NHS, and other emergency services I will be working on Christmas day. When I joined the ambulance service almost twenty years ago Christmas day was dare I say it .... no just the Q word and there was very little else going on. Boxing day would have been busier but as the years have gone by Christmas day almost seems like any other day of the year, Boxing day even more so. Across the country more and more people are having to work over the festive period and I think this is a sign of our 24 hour culture.

With less than a week to go before  the big day  the festive shenanigans will be in full swing, please have a think about how prepared you are, no I don't mean have you got a big enough turkey or sprouts to feed a small army but more along the  lines of have you got sufficient stocks of prescribed medication if you need them? What about over the counter remedies?

Have you checked your car if you are off on a journey to visit relatives or friends? Have you filled up with fuel? What about the screen wash and the tyre tread and pressures?
Off to a party? How are you getting home? Have you a designated driver? What about booking your taxi?

So much to think about besides getting the reindeer carrots sorted and a mince pie for Santa. If you needed an ambulance at night could we find your address? Can we see your number from the road? Unlike Santa we do really on the mark one eyeball to find you, not a glowing nose!

       

Please stay safe and enjoy the festive period.

Help us to help you

I've had a few days off this week which was nice as it gave me a chance to catch up on a few jobs at home and I also had a nice meal out with friends.

The cold weather has continued and Emergency Departments continue to be busy. As regular readers will know part of my role is to manage ambulance  handover delays at the two local acute hospitals. This can be challenging at times, whether that is due to a lack of bed capacity in the hospital, high call volume to the ambulance service, delays in patients being seen and triaged in the Emergency Department or a combination of all three.

The trust I work for is committed to Right Care and the overarching aim of this programme is to ensure that patients receive the right care, at the right time and in the right place. This may not always be hospital and in fact locally  only around 38% of the patients our clinicians see are actually transported to hospital. Many of them are given advice or treated at home. They may be referred to their own GP or the Out Of Hours Service for follow up. Many callers to 999 may also be triaged  over the phone and advised to seek help from other NHS services. All of this work is in place to try to ensure that those people who really need and ambulance get one in a timely manner.

As we move nearer to Christmas there are a few things that you can do to help us to help you:

Also please:

Ensure you have a stock of everyday over the counter medicines.

Ensure that you have sufficient stocks of prescription medicines to see you through the holiday period

Seek advice for health problems now , don't put it off. Many everyday problems can be dealt with by your local pharmacist.

If you are having relatives to stay make sure they have their medications with them if needed. Do they have any specific needs? If so how will you cope with them?

Help us to help you , stay safe

Christmas is coming!

As I write this we are in December and another year is fast drawing to a close. Where has the year gone? What have I achieved? What did I miss out on doing?

This year seems to have flown by with lots going on throughout the year with Exercise Velocity a highlight for me. Day to day duties proved challenging in the early part of the year with hospital handover delays, demand carries on increasing and we have had the introduction of the electronic patient records system along with Mobimed monitoring, alongside a new response bag system. All of these have been on top of the everyday issues. Staff have dealt with this admirably.

We have recently had the coldest weather of the year so far and this will increase demand on all services, I wonder if this is a sign to of things to come? Looking forward this month will see party season moving in to full swing in the run up to Christmas. Please consider how your going to get home and as throughout the rest of the year don't drink and drive. As an aside to this road side detection of drug driving is also on the increase with many more roadside tests being carried out.

Just a thought about cold weather , please make sure you check your car before setting off and ensure that your windscreen and lights are clear. Please also adjust your driving to suit the conditions and drive to arrive.

I have only just seen this on the TV and thought I would share it with you

straight talking and to the point!!

As always stay safe

Multi agency working

Yesterday saw me at a meeting of the Poole Harbour Islands Safety Group. We meet twice a year to discuss issues and problems facing the inhabitants of the islands. There are around twenty full time inhabitants this number can swell to over two thousand when the visitors decend on Brownsea Island.
Just because you live on a island doesn't mean you don't get ill, suffer accidents or other emergencies. You can still.be a victim of crime or have a fire. The inhabitants still dial 999 , 111, 101 or contact their GP in the same way that you and I do. They also expect the same level.of service although all realise the logistics of living on an island will impact on this. So this is where the PHISG comes in to ensure as responding agencies have robust plans in place to respond to the island communities.
The group is made of of the emergencies services , island owners and staff, the harbour commsioners  and other interested parties. Good progress is being made with all the inhabited Islands now having defibrillators and training , fire fighting equipment and training. The plans produced by both the islands and the responders are reviewed and in the new year we will be holding a table top exercise to validate these plans and seek improvements. 
Planning is well underway for this and it should prove to be an interesting  day for all involved.

Stay safe and remember Xmas is coming.

Training and rain

This week saw CBRN refresher training and this weekend as operational officer for East Dorset.
It's already been a busy day across the patch with hospital handover delays and heavy rain adding to the mix.
As I write this it is throwing it down outside and according to the forecast it is set to get worse overnight please make sure you drive to the conditions.
As much as our crews are a friendly bunch they would rather not meet you.
As you know I have a couple of pet hates drink driving and mobile phone use while driving, this week has seen a concerted national campaign to highlight the dangers of mobile phone use while driving with multiple prosecutions across the country.
You take the keys off someone you think is drunk but not a mobile phone? Both can lead to fatal events and the sooner people realise this the sooner our roads may become safer.
As always stay safe

Remembering

My thoughts this week are for all those involved in several tragic incidents across the country, those who have lost their lives, those that are left behind and those who attend as part of their job to protect and save us.
As part of a service which provides this care I feel incredibly proud of those who I work with, across all of the responding agencies and not to be forgotten the voluntary groups who provide hours of support both during an incident and after it.
The time after an incident can be the most difficult to deal with both for the victims , their families and the bereaved. It can be months years , if ever that people begin to come to terms with the tragic events they have been exposed to.
You may have noticed that I didn't include the responders in that group; "Its our job" , "I'm OK" and similar are often heard. This is not the case and we are just as likely to affected by an incident as anyone else Our green superman or whatever colour uniform you wear does not make us invincible!
All agencies have in place a support network to enable staff to speak to someone if they have been affected by a incident or things that may have built up over a period of time.
It is not weak, it is not failure, it is not brave to bottle things up. In fact it is the complete opposite to recognise that you need to talk to someone and ask for help.
Using the old British Telecom line again "It's good to talk"
Today is also Remembrance Sunday and will see those who have fallen in conflicts across the ages and the world remembered for their sacrifice. Included in this will be all those from the emergency services who lost their lives while doing their job and protecting us.

Please take a moment to remember all those who have given their lives to protect us whether during conflict or on home soil.

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Robert Binyon, 1869-1943

Thank you have a good week and stay safe.

A bit of a rant

Another week nearer to Christmas!!!
This week has been a contrast in days frosty starts and sunny days. One day hardly a phone call the next the phone practically red hot.
Wednesday was a chilled day with the normal things to deal with  staff welfare deployment issues, liaising with hospitals and attending incidents. Thursday right from early doors the phone did not stop ringing, not content with using our dedicated duty officer number, my normal work phone was busy to.
The clocks going back means darker evenings, and despite it actually being dark I still cyclists without lights. Please if you are a cyclists or know a cyclist please , please make sure you have lights, bright clothing and a helmet.
As those of you who know my real pet hate is drivers using mobile phones. I'm sorry but nothing is that important that you need to use your phone while driving. Drink driving is considered socially unacceptable so why do people consider the use of a phone to be OK?
My personal view is; caught using your phone while driving equals a automatic 28 day driving ban and a retest. Would that be enough of a deterrent? I think so.
We all need to remember that driving is a privilege not a right and we all need to do our bit to contribute to safer roads.

Rant over! Stay safe