Saturday, January 29, 2011

London Ambulance Concern

The BBC reported on a London Ambulance crew that refused to take an ill woman to hospital. She died later that day. This should be a concern for all who live in London and I think a formal inquest should be considered. This is what I get as I interpret the story: A crew refused to take her because she soiled herself. She was stricken with sickle cell anemia and could not move. A second crew was called and took her to hospital.

Here are questions that need to be answered. Why was the first crew allowed to not take the woman? If you are seriously ill and can’t walk what procedures are in place by LAS that permits a crew to deny services? How did the second crew decide to transport? Where there changes in the woman’s condition? I have to think that all communications between the landlady who called and all radio transmissions are recorded. Are they to be made public? And what of the woman’s family? Do they not deserve to know why LAS preformed the way they did? At any time was a supervisor called or monitored the situation?

I find this entire situation upsetting and you should too. The government has put in place a program to protect the public. The police, fire and ambulance service are trained to respond to situations to prevent death and destruction. Should something go wrong, an investigation needs to be started. In this case one is by LAS but a person has died and an independent investigation may be in order. Maybe I am over reacting but this could have happed to anyone and everyone should believe that those working to protect are doing so.