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Medic jailed over patient 'photo'
15.08.2008 08:40:11

An ambulance worker who took out his mobile phone camera and pointed it at an unconscious patient's private parts has been jailed for four months.

Ambulance technician Scott Jenkins, 30, took out the camera and made offensive remarks about the woman, who was drunk and naked from the waist down.

The father-of-two crouched down in front of her in the ambulance and told colleagues: "She'll never remember."

Sheriff Andrew Lothian described it as a "gross breach of trust".

Jenkins was arrested after another paramedic, disgusted by his actions, reported him to a team leader in the Scottish Ambulance Service.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, Sheriff Lothian praised the paramedic who reported him.

He told Jenkins: "You were only in this lady's presence in order that you could help her and you did precisely the opposite.

"If it wasn't for the courage and good sense of one of your colleagues this would have been swept under the carpet."

Jenkins, who has been suspended from work since 1 March, had denied the incident and stood trial last month but was found guilty of committing a sexual breach of the peace.

The incident took place when Jenkins and a male colleague attended an emergency call to the Cowgate, at Holyrood Road in Edinburgh, on 10 February.

During his trial, Jenkins confessed to enjoying "banter" at work and admitted taking out his phone and asking a colleague if he wanted a picture, but denied taking any pictures.

His lawyer later said Jenkins was "ashamed" of his actions, which had "a devastating effect on his family".

His wife ran crying from the court after seeing her husband jailed.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Paramedic bitten by violent patient
13.08.2008 07:52:36

A TOTNES ambulance man was allegedly attacked and a second man injured after a 'patient' is said to have become violent as he was being cared for in the back of an ambulance.

The paramedic was grabbed around the head and his glasses were smashed in the attack in the village of Harbertonford, say police.

A passer-by who tried to help the ambulance man was allegedly bitten on the arm and had to have medical treatment himself.

A 25-year-old man and a second man aged 24 years, both from Harbertonford, were arrested by police and questioned before being released on bail.

Meanwhile police are appealing for witnesses to the incident which happened at 3.20pm outside the Brocade shop near the main A381 road through Harbertonford last Thursday.

The police spokesman added: "We will not tolerate attacks on emergency service personnel who are only trying to help the public."

Ken Wenman, the South West Ambulance Service's chief executive said the service operated a 'zero tolerance' attitude towards people who abuse or attack ambulance personnel.

He said: "Our primary concern is to ensure all staff have a safe working environment and that all patients receive optimum levels of care.

"This is why our ambulance service has put into place a series of measures to support staff such as incident reporting which monitors what is happening at the front line with the follow-up pursued against assailants.

"We are sending a clear message to those thinking of committing acts of abuse or violence against our staff that this unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated and, if appropriate, legal action will be taken."

The incident happened in Moreleigh Road after the Totnes ambulance was called out to a man who had fallen from his cycle and was bleeding.

The man, who it is believed had been drinking, was in the ambulance when he demanded to be able to leave. The ambulance man tried to let him out but he allegedly attacked him anyway, struggling with him and breaking his glasses.

A 45-year-old man from Berkshire, who it is believed had called the ambulance in the first place, tried to help the ambulance man but was allegedly bitten on the upper arm.

Meanwhile a second man, who it is believed knew the man being treated in the ambulance, became involved and he too was arrested when the police arrived.

Both men were taken away, one in leg restraints, in a police van.

Clarification - Mr. Vernon Taylor EMT.
12.08.2008 10:48:50

 The contents of a recent newspaper  article titled ‘Paramedic failed to spot heart attack' and copied on this website gave the impression that both members of the crew involved failed in their responsibility to treat the patient correctly.

This was not the case and we would like to take this opportunity to point out that the technician involved, Mr. Vernon Taylor, did treat the patient correctly but was not supported in his treatment by the paramedic, Ms Jameson, who drove the ambulance to hospital.

The following are extracts taken from a letter from the HPC to Mr. Taylor supporting his actions.

"I can fully appreciate your concern that the newspaper report implied that the technician was at fault and that due to working arrangements others could easily identify this as you. It is most unfortunate that the paper who reported from the hearing choose only to use the opening as their source of information. Their selective reporting has meant they have reported details only of the opening of the case where Ms Jung had made errors."

"that it was the HPC's case that the technician did notice that the patient was going into cardiac arrest and was providing treatment in the back whilst Pamela Jameson drove the ambulance to hospital."

"The panel find that the registrant left the EMT ventilating the patient and doing chest compressions while she drove to hospital and did not take ultimate responsibility for the patient's care as the senior clinician."

The full details of the panel's decision are available on the HPC's website in relation to Ms Jameson's case.

APAP would like to apologize for any additional distress this article on our website may have caused Mr. Taylor.

Safety scare grounds helicopters
11.08.2008 15:33:30

A number of police and air ambulance helicopters have been grounded while maintenance checks are carried out.

It follows an incident involving the London Air Ambulance at Denham Airfield, in Buckinghamshire.

An internal fan system fault, which can cause a drop in height, is understood to be the cause of the scare.

Police forces in Dorset, Humberside, West Yorkshire, Sussex and Wiltshire have grounded helicopters until checks are completed.

Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire Police forces also use McDonnell Douglas (MD) 902 series helicopters.

But both said they carried out their own maintenance work and their helicopters were still operating.

The 902 series does not have a tail rotor and instead uses a fan exhaust system.

It is believed that similar earlier faults with fan belts in the internal system have affected other 902 helicopters involving the police in Germany, France and the United States.

The Gloucestershire-based Specialist Aviation Services, which leases the 902s, said the fault could affect up to 30 craft throughout the UK.

Sales and marketing director Nigel Lemon said many of the helicopters could be back in service later on Monday if checks could be done quickly enough.

McDonnell Douglas has ordered the groundings until maintenance checks are carried out over the coming days.

London's Air Ambulance Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (Hems) is still out of service.

Chief executive Andrew Cameron said the craft had been on a mission when a fault forced it to land.

"The skill of the pilots brought it home to Denham safely," he said.

Air ambulance helicopters in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire and at Durham Tees Valley Airport have also been grounded.

Story from BBC NEWS:

East Lancashire hospitals in 'red alert' shock
11.08.2008 15:30:41

BOSSES of East Lancashire hospitals are declaring a state of "red alert" two-and-a-half days a week due to a lack of available beds.

The figures were obtained by the Lancashire Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act.

They show that since all 999 cases were sent to the Royal Blackburn Hospital, operations have had to be cancelled, patients discharged early and some moved to other wards to ease the pressure.

Critics said the statistics were "shocking" and raised concerns over the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals' ability to cope with an epidemic or disaster.

But trust bosses said their ‘traffic light' system categorising the pressures on beds reflected the changing demand on services.

Under the system, red signifies "extreme pressure", amber "high pressure", yellow "higher than normal" and green normal.

The figures released to the Telegraph show that between last November, when the A&E change was introduced, and May, the trust was on red 35 per cent of the time, amber 24 per cent, yellow six per cent and green 35 per cent.

Therefore, two thirds of the time, East Lancashire hospitals beds are under higher than "normal" demands.

The traffic light rating refers to Royal Blackburn Burnley General, Pendle Community and Rossendale General hospitals.

Critics questioned the decision to close acute surgery wards in Phase Five at Burnley General containing 132 beds as part of the changeover. These are due to re-open by January for planned surgery but are empty at present.

Chairman of Blackburn with Darwen Council's health scrutiny committee Roy Davies said: "If they are struggling to cope so often now, how are they going to manage if there's an epidemic of a serious illness, or the fog comes down and there's a huge pile-up on the motorway? It's shocking and very worrying.

"We have to ask serious questions about why they are in this state when there's so much room empty at Burnley."

In May Liberal Democrat councillors campaigning for the return of A&E to Burnley General published a 101-page dossier with 200 complaints from patients and staff about the trust.

And concern over capacity was the second most reported complaint after allegations of poor care.

Burnley Council leader Gordon Birtwistle, who spearheaded the dossier, said: "This backs up yet another part of what we have been saying all along.

"They are trying to deal with too many patients, and to pull themselves out of messes they are moving patients in the middle of the night and sending people home before they are ready.

"If Burnley was used properly, they wouldn't be having these problems."

Last month a senior doctor with the trust spoke out to say the changes under the Meeting Patients Needs scheme had been a "disaster". And he warned of "big problems" with capacity, saying medical patients were being sent to the surgical ward at busy times where staff had little experience in dealing with their condition.

Now a porter at the trust, who asked to remain anonymous, has come forward. He said people were regularly woken and moved late at night.

He said: "Just the other week we got a call saying a ward would have to be shut down and all the patients moved because the staff were needed at Blackburn. It was 2am.

"It was horrendous: an awful thing to have to do. We were waking up elderly, ill people and telling them they had to get up and be moved all the way from Burnley to Blackburn.

"They were frightened and it was distressing for us all."

Jonathan Fox, national spokesman for the Association of Professional Ambulance Personnel, said: "This is a problem paramedics are experiencing all over the country where emergency departments have been merged."

Val Bertenshaw, director of operations for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said various factors, including bed occupancy, numbers in critical care, emergency activity and numbers of seriously ill patients, could lead to a red alert.

She said the "red" rating was often caused by high pressure in a single department, not hospitals as a whole.

She said: "It is important to note that we are at 'green' status just as often and whenever we are at red it is only for a short period of time.

"It would not be correct to assume these fluctuations are due to the service changes but rather a large hospital trust responding to fluctuations in demand as all hospital trusts do up and down the country.

"The fact that we return to green swiftly shows we are a flexible organisation which is constantly responding to the needs of its patients."