Tag: #maliciousaccusations

Turn to the Dark Side PtII

Angry post warning.

I’ve already spoken about ambulance crews’ dark humour and other coping strategies that they use. I mentioned how “normal” members of the public often don’t get it. Recently I was horrified to read an article relating to this.

It revolved around a message sent to ambulance crews, in their ambulances, telling them to “Please be mindful when outside A+E of how the public view your actions. Eg. Being on mobile phones/Snapchat or taking refreshments.”

Firstly, what narrow minded, uninformed person actually sent that message? Any member of any ambulance service should know what their staff go through. To send something like that to crews, while they are still on duty, is utterly thoughtless!

Secondly, the message began “Following a complaint from a member of the public…”. Whoever took that complaint should have put that member of public straight and explained what the crews actually go through on a daily basis and ended things there. It should never have made it past that first person.

There are blinkered people out there who think ambulance crews should go round expressionless and unemotional. Unfortunately robotics hasn’t progressed that far yet so the job is still done by humans, with emotions, and coping strategies.

Sometimes, after certain jobs, they just need to chat with a friend or a loved one, outside A&E, on their phones. Sometimes one of the few chances they get to drink coffee etc is after a job, outside A&E. Normally because they are so busy serving members of the public. They might even have been on their phone to a counsellor after a particularly traumatic incident.

Please don’t ever judge crews for being human. That “member of the public” probably had no idea what the crews they were complaining about had just dealt with. Maybe they actually just needed a break and a brew, perhaps they were taking the chance, between jobs, to check in with their loved ones they’d not seen for a long time because they’d been doing long shifts.

I hope the person who actually sent that message was suitably dealt with.

Finally, if you think I’m wrong, and if you think crews should behave differently, most ambulance services are usually recruiting – why not put yourself in their shoes and see if you are right.

It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white.

Whatever you’re views on Michael Jackson, he had a point. It really doesn’t matter the colour of your skin or, for that matter, your gender orientation, religion, belief in unicorns….. We are who we are, and that’s an amazing thing.

Nowhere is this more important than in the back of an ambulance. Every person will bleed the same colour, no matter what the colour of their skin. Everyones’ heart works the same, beats the same, no matter what their religious beliefs. To an ambulance crew, you are first and very foremost, a patient, and all the same rules apply.

Granted, people with certain sexual orientation and drug users sometimes require extra infection control measures, but not because of who they are. People with certain religious beliefs require certain parts of their beliefs to be respected in their treatment too.

The bottom line is that there is, and there will never be, any place or time for racism, homophobia or any other form of bias in an ambulance!

It was a Friday or Saturday night, an alcohol fueled altercation in the city centre. My partner that night was a veteran paramedic, quite large, not to be argued with. We arrived to find two males had been involved. One was in a police car being interviewed, the other in a shop doorway also being interviewed by the police. I went to the police car to check on the person in there, my partner went to the person in the doorway. My “patient” had red knuckles, from the impact with the other person’s face, but no other injuries. My partner’s “patient” had a cut lip, also a result of the fist/face impact. This person also had darker skin……

The police were surprised when we appeared, but it transpired the victim had called us. We examined both people and determined no loss of consciousness, blurred vision, broken bones etc, therefore no requirement for hospitalisation. This didn’t go down well with the victim. As we walked away the victim shouted “You’re all just ****ing racists!”.

My partner stopped in their tracks. It felt like the whole world stopped for a moment, everything went silent. The police officers tensed up.

They slowly turned, walked back to the patient, looked him in the eye and slowly and clearly said “Don’t ever repeat that in my hearing! Man up, sort yourself out and get on with your life. I am following ambulance service protocols, protocols that apply to everyone. Now if you wish to discuss racism, let’s get one of these police officers across.”. The patient, now speechless, raised his hands by way of a stunned apology. My partner turned and walked back to the ambulance. I too was speechless as I drove away from the scene.

Then my partner turned to me “Coffee?”. We refuelled the ambulance and picked up a couple of strong brews. “That went surprisingly well” they said, and we both let out a sigh of relief.

I already wrote about affluent types, now colour, country of origin, religion, sexual persuasion….there is nothing in this world, other than your attitude, that will cause you to be treated differently to anyone else when you are a patient in an ambulance. Please bear this in mind should you be unfortunate enough to find yourself there. Ambulance crews are very unbiased, they have to be. Their job is to save or maintain “life”, not “certain lives”.

And they don’t appreciate malicious accusations.