Great Western Ambulance Service Rant

The ambulance crew were incapable of diagnosing a dislocated shoulder?? It’s fairly obvious & not exactly difficult to pop back in place. When it happens in motorcycle accidents whoever was riding with the guy who crashed usually pops it back in place even before the ambulance has been called.

Yes they were 95% certain of this. It is their job to asess,stabalise and transport the casulty to Hospital.

Please read the following from the NHS Website and then I will add further comments.

Most dislocated shoulders should be treated in a hospital A&E department.

Your shoulder is first X-rayed to make sure you haven’t broken any bones. It’s fairly common for someone who has dislocated their shoulder to also break the top of their humerus, the arm bone running from the shoulder to the elbow. A fractured humerus is most likely to happen in older people, whose bones have weakened with age. Read about the treatment of a fractured humerus in our page on broken arm.

The X-ray will confirm whether the shoulder has dislocated and can reveal if the rotator cuff tendons have torn – these are the bands of tissue that stretch over the top of the shoulder. It is common to tear a rotator cuff tendon and also the labrum, the cuff of tough tissue surrounding and supporting the shoulder joint. Rotator cuff tears are more likely to happen in older people, whose tissues are weaker.

Your arm will be supported in a sling, with your elbow bent at a right angle, and a pillow may be placed in the space between your arm and chest to provide comfort and support. Both the pillow and sling will be secured to your chest.

Your arm will then be gently manipulated back into its shoulder joint, using a procedure known as reduction.

Surgery is sometimes necessary if the tissues surrounding the joint are badly torn and the joint is not stable. If the tissues are not torn but overstretched, then surgery can be avoided by doing appropriate exercises to strengthen the shoulder (see below).
Reduction

You will be given some medication to sedate you, which ensures you are relaxed and as pain-free as possible.

Reduction will usually be carried out in the A&E department, but sometimes it is done in the operating theatre under general anaesthetic (you are put to sleep).

You will usually sit on the bed while the doctor rotates your arm around the shoulder joint until it goes back in its socket. This may take a few minutes.

Once the shoulder joint is back in place, you may have another X-ray to check the bone is in the correct position and there’s no other injury.

Now may I point out this was done as above.
My wife is 70years old and the Ambulance Crew would not know if she suffered from a lack of bone density which may have given her even more extreme injury if they did as you suggested.

Even the Doctor did not attempt to treat her without an Xray first!

I believe you are from the USA can you imagine all the Ambulance Chasers buzzing about if they got this one wrong.

It will take 12-16 weeks for this to heal and bad pain for the next 2-3 weeks.

Shame she was not a knuckleheaded young motocycle rider then!

many of the ( NHS staff ) are outstanding…but they are badly let down by (over) management and sometimes the internal politics/personalities and incompetence of senior personnel.

That encapsulates In my experience and probably is the core truth of the NHS problem. The stupid mantra “the NHS is safe in “someones” hands” has driven the problem foir decades. Until someone, some government has the balls to tell the truth and take decisive action it will get worse and worse as more and more cash is thrown into the bottomless pit of NHS funding.

Far too much money is wasted, free at the point of service is an anachronistic concept in 2012, NICE needs to be closed down, prescriptions should be paid for until the retirement age for men and women, missed doctors appointments should be charged. Billions could be saved and some of those billions spent where it is most needed.

The NHS has been and remains a force for good, but it could be so much better and so much better run. As I posted earlier “How on earth can the medical service of a relatively small nation be one of the largest employers in the world? It is ridiculous.”

Paul, what you could do is go to the Tesco website you linked to and write a review of the product. Don’t pull punches, however stick to stating facts. I see that there is already a bad review there. Hit them on their Facebook page too. As for the NHS, it’s farting against thunder unless they really messed up.

“The NHS is safe in our hands” says Camercon, I don’t think so.

Previous posts refer to an apparently top heavy management, would agree, but what chance is there in correcting this when the incompetence starts right at the very top?.

Of course…it is all the Tories fault…the governments of our country rely on that sort of naivety 🙂

As has been alluded to by previous posters…the whole NHS ‘System’ is both top and middle heavy and far too driven by ‘Targets’…and that also goes for many of our largish companies here in dear ole blighty,there are many problems within the NHS but most are self inflicted…
I too have seen the bad side of our health ‘system’ but that is not to say that all the staff are bad – quite the reverse many of them are outstanding…but they are badly let down by (over) management and sometimes the internal politics/personalities and incompetence of senior personnel.

The NHS is suffering more and more cuts to it’s funding, big savings made this year are down to delaying ops, cutting the numbers of front line staff and forcing pay freezes on those who actually do the work, to add insult to injury our beloved Chancellor has taken this money back into treasury funds and has the crust to say that as departments have not used all their funding then they can function on less for next year.

“The NHS is safe in our hands” says Camercon, I don’t think so.

Previous posts refer to an apparently top heavy management, would agree, but what chance is there in correcting this when the incompetence starts right at the very top?.

I cannot praise the crew enough they were thourough,painstaking and very comforting to both my wife and myself.
They admiistered entonox and then morphine and that was hardly touching the pain. They took her to Frenchay hospital the long way round A38 and the ring road at 15 mph to avoid any bumps which would cause my wife more pain.

Frenchay Hopital we had a 20 minute trolly wait to book her in. That I undestand is to make sure that the patients see and treat target is met as it only starts when the Ambulance crew hand her over.

She then had to wait 2hours in A&E without any pain relief to see a triarge nurse despite me getting more and more annoyed and hounding reception.

She finaly saw a Doctor who asked “where were her X rays” I told him no one had sent her for any. With that he grabbed the wheelchair and took her to Xray himself(he was obviously was very angry at this oversite to put it mildly)

Anyway things moved rapidly after that it turned out she had a dislocated shoulder and fortunately no broken bones. He put the shoulder back in place within a few minutes and my wife was almost pain free.

The ambulance crew were incapable of diagnosing a dislocated shoulder?? It’s fairly obvious & not exactly difficult to pop back in place. When it happens in motorcycle accidents whoever was riding with the guy who crashed usually pops it back in place even before the ambulance has been called.

Chas, I think it may well be a good idea for all Senior Managers, to don the appropriate clothing, and do EXACTLY the same work as the Nurses who work on the Wards, Just for four weeks a year. It would IMHO put them back as to what it’s like at ground root level.(IF THEY EVER DID NURSING in the first place)
I would bet things would change P.D.Q. after cleaning a few bedpans. 😉
Jim.
Lincoln .7

[QUOTE=Lincoln 7;2004704the NHS is far too top heavy, and some serious pruning is needed at Management level.
Jim.
Lincoln .7[/QUOTE]

Hear, hear! Couldn’t agree more…

Edgar, I agree, several weeks ago my youngest daughhter went tto our local G.P. in pain. Briefly, he saw and examined her, and gave her an injection of Morphine, and told her to sit in the waiting room, until it kicked in. 15 mins later, she took a turn for the worse, and the Dr, HIMSELF phoned for an Ambulance, only to be told that one would not be available for FOUR hours.
In view of this, her GP phoned us, and asked if we could pick her up from the surgery and take her to Hospital 20 miles away, which we did, and she was admitted onto a Ward.
I have said it before and will again, the NHS is far too top heavy, and some serious pruning is needed at Management level.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Costs should be the driving force but not at the expense of proper care. The problem with the NHS is that it has become too big and too unwieldy for its and our good. How on earth can the medical service of a relatively small nation be one of the largest employers in the world? It is ridiculous.

As long as costs are the driving force, in the NHS, rather than the patients, these nonsenses will continue; our local hospital (1 mile from the M40, and 7 miles from the M4) has had its A&E closed, and moved 14 miles away to Aylesbury (nowhere near a motorway, but Bucks’ county town.) We’ve now had instances of Stoke Mandeville hospital pleading with the public not to attend, because their A&E can’t cope, but, naturally, the local “trust” won’t budge.
We had a recent case, where a woman, with a history of heart trouble, suffered a recurrence of her symptoms, so tried to get herself admitted to Wycombe’s hospital; she was refused, but advised to stand outside the hospital, and dial 999, whereupon an ambulance appeared, took her around to the admissions door, and she was allowed in.

Moggy the aim is to get the thing withdrawn from sale before it kills someone.

Sorry about the late reply I now have a stomach bug,I wonder where I got that? I could not be sitting next to a little lad vomiting in A&E surely?

When you say “approaching Tesco”, with what aim?

Moggy

And just to add… Sorry to hear about your wife’s accident, and the shambolic mess that followed. I would say that I fail to understand how we can continue to pour money into the NHS with so little effect. But then I remember my visits to the palace that is a Midlands PCT, luxurious, lavish, and of course not a patient or hands-on medic in sight, just lots of administrators.

Cheers Jim!

Hi Paul, Sorry to hear that bit of news, and I hope your wife makes a speedy recovery.
I had a similar product accident concerning Wicks the DIY chain. I sued and won.
I will PM you in the morrow.with details, that may help.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Thank you I will pass your good wishes on to her. I will try and speak to the nurse who told me but as you sy its doubtful that anyone will stick their kneck out officially.

I guess you could see if the hospital would confirm how many other accidents have been caused by the mats [i doubt they will tell you officially though].
Good luck ,i hope your wife continues her recovery:)