Whilst out on the Isles of Scilly I came across a cyclist who had come off his bike, he had facial lacerations and was in shock. A taxi driver who was also a passerby called 999 for an ambulance and was asked to give the phone to the injured cyclist. However, because of his injuries the cyclist was unable to respond to the questions he was being asked and I took the phone from him to speak to the operator.
I was disappointed with the service. No allowance was made for the fact that the injured man could not answer the phone himself and the operator was not prepared to move on to take other details until seemingly irrelevant information such as his temperature had been given. We had no means of taking his temperature, it was a roadside accident. 15 minutes later we were still no further forward in getting an ambulance to treat the casualty, the call operator would not send out an ambulance until they had this information.
At this point an off duty ambulance crew person arrived by chance, also a nurse who was dropping off a child at a nearby school. I left the cyclist in their care, disappointed and bewildered about the lack of paramedic support.
"disappointed and bewildered about the lack of paramedic support"
About: South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust / Emergency ambulance South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust Emergency ambulance Exeter EX2 7HY
Posted by Pattern538 (as ),
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