Hunt’s NHS: Mum with broken back forced to wait seven hours for ambulance
Marion Nash: While she waited for the ambulance, her two daughters covered her in blankets as she shook because of the freezing temperatures.
This is today’s story about the travesty that is the National Health Service in England under the leadership of Jeremy Hunt and the Conservative government.
Remember when the Tories said introducing private companies into the NHS would improve the service? That was a lie, then.
Of course, private companies don’t run ambulance services, or Accident & Emergency departments. They just suck money away from those branches of the health service because their bosses want lots of profit.
The result: A woman with a broken back has to wait seven hours, in agony, for an ambulance.
And Hunt doesn’t even have the decency to resign in shame.
The family of a mother have criticised the “sorry” state of the NHS after she was forced to wait seven hours before doctors treated her broken back following a fall at home.
Marion Nash, 61, slipped and fell from the top step of a ladder while clearing her back garden on Monday last week after the wreckage of the Beast from the East.
She was left writhing in pain after fracturing her spine in what have been described as “life-changing injuries” by family.
Source: Mum with broken back forced to wait seven hours for ambulance
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I suspect Hunt and his evil cronies are pleased to hear such news. It’s all part of their nasty, devious and underhand plan.
Private companies do run ambulance services with an NHS logo… wicki
‘Private, voluntary and charity ambulance services
There is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012.[15] Since April 2011, all ambulance providers operating in England have been required by law to be registered with the Care Quality Commission, under the same inspection regime as NHS services, and there are currently around 250 credentialled providers.[16]
The primary activities of the private and voluntary services include:
the provision of ambulances as part of a wider service of first aid at events, construction sites, film sets, or other private provision
the provision of additional resource to NHS ambulance trusts
urgent patient transport between points of care (such as between two hospitals)
non-urgent patient transport
All providers, including NHS, private, and voluntary can bid for many of the available contracts for provision of ambulance services, and private ambulance services now undertake over half of hospital transfers.[17] This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, although the private sector has been growing at the expense of the voluntary services over time.
There is a duty on Category 1 responders (including the NHS) to make appropriate arrangements for major incidents, and as such private and voluntary ambulance services are generally included as part of local planning for the provision of ambulance services during major incidents, such as mass casualty events (including 7 July 2005 London bombings), adverse weather, or severe staff shortage.
Private ambulance services
Private ambulance services are common in the UK, with over 200 providers, and their use under contract to the NHS to answer 999 calls has been growing year on year,[18] with every NHS ambulance trust using private providers in each year from 2011–2014, and contracted providers answering three quarters of a million 999 calls in that three-year period.[19] Expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011–12 to £67.5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8.8m.[20] In 2014–15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services – an increase of 156% since 2010–11.[14] This use of private contractors for frontline services has been politically controversial,[21][22] although 56% of the British public believe that greater private sector involvement will help maintain or improve standards in the NHS.[23]
In 2013, the Care Quality Commission found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care.[16] These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association. In 2017 the Commission warned all independent ambulance providers that during its inspections it had found “problems with the safety” of the care offered. 70 independent ambulance providers had been inspected and improvement notices had been issued to 25 out of 39 whose reports had been published. Plymouth Central Ambulance Service and Intrim Medical and Rescue Services were closed down after very poor practice was found.[24]
There are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the same checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles, and offer near identical services.[17]’
I had forgotten. Thanks for the reminder.
Ambulance crews alerted us to the fact that private Ambulance staff have been seen with paramedic on their uniforms, and when challenged about their clinical knowledge, were found not to be trained paramedics.
The private sector has a lot of charlatans posing as trained ambulance crews.