Still dialing 3 figures ❤

They were literal _hearses_ in the US...run by privateers and staffed by untrained labourers - until EMS standardisation, anyway. In Thailand to this very day the 'ambulance' is a car or van that conveys you to hospital like a bag of cement if, _and only if,_ you can produce cash. They rifle through your pockets and if there's no cash they _leave you on the pavement._

I was talking to a friend of mine whose father worked for the ambulance service in the late 1970's and through the 1980's (non essential passenger transport, transferring patients between hospitals for outpatient appoint/treatments etc) and I was interested in how the service had evolved, was the service 'better organised' and underpinned by stronger values then say in the 1990's when some of the non essential service was contracted out to private transport groups?

@@kailashpatel1706 It had a greater "military" style ethos I think...certainly the middle management thought of themselves as sergeants or colonels, and polished shoes with hats were highly regarded as a standard turn-out. There was plenty of cover for what was then the accepted standard of response, in London a few minutes only, and the Patient Transport Service was a useful nursery for new recruits and a pasture for burnt-out QAM's. I wouldn't know if it was better organised or not; certainly in this era they had years of experience to fine-tune the system and they had it working very well. Society has changed, though, and that shade of Service would not function today, any more than the 1970's Police would.

@@direktorpresident I think what should have happened post 1991 (the introduction of the NHS internal markets) was that the LAS and other Ambulance regional services should have been allowed to develop their own 24hr non essential passenger services..the development of the trust system was very damaging full stop to the NHS inc the impact on Ambulance work..

I'm sorry to say mate that the USA is so far behind Britain in everything except for the military. I only realised that in the last few years and take no joy from it whatsoever. America is finished and its just a matter of time before the collapse of the dollar then the west.

Sorry, can you explain that statement...You think London Ambulance Service is more efficient than its US counterparts today?

That's your perspective. There is American footage showing paramedics intubating and giving cardiac drugs as soon as 1970. Advanced life support techniques weren't introduced in a large scale in the British system until the mid 80s. To this day, American paramedics' scope of practice is less restrictive than British paramedics' scope of practice.

No it isn't.

Ireland's pre-hospital care is still behind US & UK standards but we are catching up

Laerdal suction

@@rapman5363 Phew! Thank you Rapman! I missed an "r" out there.

With the advent of self-loading stretchers, why can't we have one-man ambulances? No need for them to be Paramedics, just Drivers. Load the two patients in the back, and hey Presto...at the Hopsital

The modern paramedic was born in the early 90s what are you talking about. Early 90s they had defibs with other advanced kit.

The reporter states at the beginning that all the incidents were genuine, it's up to you whether you think that's true.

Yes, they were.

And a few more besides which they could not show! People under trains, hanging for three weeks, etc etc

here in germany we use the 2 crews ^^

Probably retired.

Dead

It was a disciplinary offence to transport the stretcher in the raised position...this put the CG very high and likely to tip over. The stretcher raised up at bedside to make the transfer lift easier.

@@direktorpresident well yeah.......

Some of the stretchers didn’t elevate. The Ferno York 4 did, but the York 2 didn’t, for example; these were the most commonly used in UK. They weren’t designed to be rolled in the elevated position, unlike the ones used in ‘Emergency’.

And, a few practical considerations....the York series had telescopic "steering" handles which made it entirely comfortable to push/pull from a full standing posture....and with I.V. stands attached, the whole unit was compact and manageable without crashing into overhead equipment (as in MRI, Catscan units , well-equipped ER's etc). Of course, effective CPR was nigh impossible on a raised stretcher. For a conscious patient, being hoisted up and down on a trolley is to be minimised; it is not a comfortable feeling.

Fire Service & Ambulance Service are entirely separate in the U.K.

The Emergency Phone was in the Smoking Lounge, not the Snooker Room

@@direktorpresident What I am saying is, the guy at the start of the clip was playing snooker/pool when the emergency phone rang :D

@@mistofoles Yes quite :-) (actually he was sweeping or mopping the floor). The major stations had to have some facility as they were manned 24/7. On the other hand, if you were in, say, Barnard Castle, your Ambulance crew would be flat out asleep at home in bed for your 3am emergency call; they would dress, go the the Station, get the Ambulance out, and head to your location. That's how it was.

@@direktorpresident DF ?? It wouldn't be your fault, but the patient could be dead by the time you'd woken, dressed, and got out there !

@@mistofoles Yes, sometimes was. Response times were occasionally 20 minutes, in bad weather or if the call was ten miles away; and that was for our own "patch". When cover in nearby towns (say, Darlington or Bishop Auckland) was stretched....and they would sometimes have only one or two ambulances each...we had to respond to emergencies even further than that.