Yes...I wish so too! Except for the medical advances....saving so many more people from heart disease. It's great what they can do these days with the heart. Stents and medication.

*So long as you’re White British.

WOW!!! Thank you fo sharing also!

Hello, can I ask you a question...The Ambulance service seems in terrible crisis today, in the 70s and 80's the key issue appeared to be a lack of investment in wages and good quality vehicles but it seemed organisationally and in terms of efficiency , a very good service (I had use of it in the late 80s a lot because of non essential transport reasons, hospital appointments and transfers and it never let me down)...Was the service more sensibly organised back in the 80's?

Kailash, it is hard to compare because I have had no experience of Ambulance work since 1999. I can say that in my day it was a quasi-military organisation...polished shoes, Officers giving "orders" etc...and now it seems a Management operation...but still very much "them" and "us". Middle Management was always exceptionally good, being largely drawn from ex-QAM's who had the right ethos and knew what they were talking about. Upper Management were invariably ambitious, unctuous and self-serving. As for organisation, I think they did amazingly well on a shoestring budget and in the age of teleprinters, telex, landlines etc! The other problem is that society has changed...in those days if you were called to an idiot with a skinful you could get him dealt with by the police or relatives but now it seems your feet wouldn't touch the ground. Every service is scared to death of litigation over political correctness. The Hospitals are often backed up and will not accept Ambulance patients until they have room, which means Ambulances are waiting for hours at Hospitals to hand over their patients...obviously an idiotic situation. The Government appear to be addressing this by telephone call screening and prioritisation...great jobs for ill, injured or shattered Paramedics!

Thank you for that...my expirence was between 1988-91, and they took me to hydo sessions at charing cross and other hospitals around London, it always seemed like a clockwork operation and the banter with the drivers kept my spirits up at a hellish time in my life...it was non urgent transport but vital in my care..

@@kailashpatel1706 Too many lowlifes ringing ambulance with mental problems.

@@kailashpatel1706 I'm from America....here the insurance companies and hospital admin suck way too much money out of the system.... Although they had been telling us on the TV news that a pandemic was inevitable.....low and behold they were not prepared. They have been under staffing hospitals for at least 20 years or more. Now after covid we have a nursing shortage, a mental health crisis, an opioid crisis, the homeless crisis, the obesity crisis, the dementia crisis. We have never been so sick as a society. They can go on and on blaming individuals but I think the government has the responsibility to make sure the population is taken care of and in good health...they are failing because of the fact that the 1-2% at the top, and all the religions who pay no taxes and big monopoly corps are not paying it back to all the people who have made them into billionaires. They buy off the politicians and blame everyone but themselves for not reinvesting in the country that has made them rich. It's the best of times and the worst of times all over again.

I was at Ilford when John Lille was manager Terry spur was also there

Tracy was a beaut! Don Parsons was a gent...Ken Wenman (16:36} has run into trouble in Devon/Cornwall. Oh, what stories....we used to call Wimbledon "The Olympic Flame" (never goes out!) :-)

Have to say that John Black was the best advanced driving instructor I have ever meet and to learn Roadcraft under his instruction was a privilege. My own subsequent role as an advanced blue light instructor was built on the foundations he so carefully instilled in me. Thanks John!

It is highly sanitised

Yeah, God forbid the public see the sort of crap ambulance crews have to deal with. Perhaps if they saw the reality they wouldn't treat techs/paras like a free taxi service.

Retired LEO nope!

QAP > IHCD tech > Frec 4/5 for 'technicians' , also far more Paramedics in the Uk since that era

Student para`s still have to meet the millar standard, it`s just these days it`s call proficiency. The training has not changed greatly to be honest because it does not need to apart from more emphasis on difib/ ecg`s ect. I did para traing at UEA and found I enjoyed being a EMT more, also when it really comes to saving lives its the foundation training that works. These people back in the day were paramedics in every way except formal term.

New South Wales Ambulance in Australia first trained Intensive Care Paramedics who could intubate, cannulate, interpret ECGs and give IV drugs in 1976. I would have thought that London Ambulance Service would have been ahead of Australia in that regard, so it seems reasonable that LAS would have introduced those skills in the early 70s.

@@blokeabouttown2490 The first ECG machines were trialled on a few crews in 1986, about the time of this video; Instructor Parsons talks about it with colleagues from 31:58. I worked one of the Ambulances so trialled, out of Fulham, at this time; there were absolutely no intubation or cannulation facilities to supplement the manual defib cardiac care. Guedel airway, O2 and N2O were the only respiratory supports available, with of course mechanical aspiration as far as the pharynx. Aspirin was being considered as the supporting drug protocol.

...and of course your mate the late great Laurie Strugnell RIP

That’s horrendous! They at least check her out and take to the hospital 🏥. I hope the poor woman get help in the end. 😪