Mister Bump UK

Who Won the Week (16 January 2022)

Prompt image for the Fandango's Who Won The Week prompt

I base these posts on Fandango’s Who Won the Week posts, and I use the opportunity just to look at my own newsfeeds.

I wanted to highlight this week the story of Graham Reagan. Mr Reagan is from Malton, in North Yorkshire, and had been feeling rough for a few days with what he thought was indigestion. On this night in particular, Mr Reagan had felt ill enough to go to bed early, but unfortunately it got so bad that by the small hours, he dialled the emergency services.

Mr Reagan was advised to get himself to hospital. But… could he take a taxi, or get a lift?

Because that would be quicker than waiting for an ambulance!

Bearing in mind that it was about 2 AM, Mr Reagan fortunately roused his son to drive him the 20 miles to York Hospital, where he was diagnosed as having a heart attack.

I’ve included a link to my story below. The actual story is the ambulance service apologising after the case was made public.

But I have the deepest of sympathy for them (the ambulance service). I don’t think they have anything to apologise for. The operator simply reported to Mr Reagan that there was a large delay in responding. If there’s a large delay, there’s a large delay – the operator cannot magic ambulances out of thin air and I’m sure the crews are working as quickly as possible to get to people.

If you’re a UK taxpayer, however, or more importantly a voter, it might be worth asking yourself whether the service you think you’ll receive when you pay your taxes is accurate.

It wasn’t for Mr Reagan.

And… I don’t particularly want to make this post personal but when I presented with my stroke, the hospital… sent me home! It wasn’t until two days later, when I re-presented with symptoms that much worse, that they accepted that I was not a malingerer. By then the damage had been done.

But just think, all of you. Will you actually receive the level of care you’d want to receive? It might well be, you vote for tax cuts, and the service you one day need is no longer there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-59996581

21 comments

  1. Absolutely. Mrs H had a two hour wait before being ‘rushed’ into hospital in the early hours a couple of weeks ago. Not their fault. Doing their best under difficult circumstances and we don’t want the services to deteriorate any more.

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  2. On the one hand, the facts of overload are simple, the blame however belongs to management, public or government and we fail to realize that and chastise and punish those who are really responsible and truly swindle taxpayers and customers in this case. Two there are some in every profession who are inept, lazy or simply incompetent, yes every profession, including emergency services. Good read. Sad situation.

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    • True, but that’s the second question.

      First question is, do we want a service which is fit for purpose? And, by implication, are we prepared to pay for it?

      Assuming that we do want the service, the second question is “why is it so expensive?”. It might simply be an expensive service to provide, or could be one of the things you mention.

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  4. I am not in the UK so don’t understand everything regarding service,only what you tell me., but I can tell you our ambulances are so overloaded with Covid people that people are being brought to the hospitals in fire trucks. And who knows how long the wait is for them? So sad.

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    • Here there is essentially a single ambulance service. Okay, it is more complicated than that, regional splits, but essentially, you dial one numberr wherever you are, an NHS ambulance comes along and carts you to hospital.

      Waits can be very long – Mrs B’s 81yo mother waited 6 hours not so long ago. The only other option is individual (self-funded) transport, a taxi for example.

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