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news
London Ambulance (via Oxyman on Wikimedia Commons under CC BY SA 3.0)Seriously injured SW London cyclist in 90-minute wait for paramedics
A London cyclist who was seriously injured in a collision with a car this morning lay on the ground for more than 90 minutes before paramedics arrived to treat her, reports the London Evening Standard.
Police were called to the scene of the incident in Broad Street, Teddington at 8.51 am, with officers putting a blanket over the woman, aged in her 60s, who had been knocked from her bike.
However, the newspaper says that according to witnesses, it was not until 10.25am that paramedics reached the scene to treat the victim.
The Standard pointed out that the closest hospital, Teddington Memorial Hospital, is just seven minutes on foot from the crash scene.
However, that hospital has a walk-in minor injuries unit rather than providing a full A&E service, the closest of which is at Kingston Hospital, more than two miles away.
London Assembly Member Stephen Knight, who is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Teddington, tweeted: “Horrified that a cyclist was left in the middle of the road in central Teddington this morning for over an hour before the ambulance arrived.”
Local website Teddington Town tweeted a picture of the scene.
45min after being knocked off bike, cyclist still on the road on a cold day, albeit under a blanket @RichmondCycling pic.twitter.com/2GbS46yJhc
— Teddington_Town (@Teddington_Town) December 1, 2014
The Standard said it had contacted London Ambulance Service (LAS) for a comment. For Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls, LAS has a target response rate of atending 75 per cent of incidents within 8 minutes.
Data published for the period March to August 2014 show that the target was achieved in every borough at the start of the period, with a London-wide average of 81 per cent.
Since then, response rates have fallen to 62 per cent by August, the last month for which data are available, and the third straight month in which that 75 per cent target was missed in every single borough.
A spokesman for LAS told the Standard: “We were called at 8.55am to reports of a road traffic collision on Broad St in Teddington.
“From the information provided, we were told the patient was conscious, breathing and alert
“We sent an ambulance crew at 9.08am but they were diverted to a patient in a more serious condition.
“A second ambulance was dispatched at 9.23am but they were also diverted to a patient in a more serious condition.
“A crew arrived on scene at 10.27am but we remained in contact with the patient throughout who had lower back pain but was not in a serious condition.
“She was taken to West Middlesex Hospital, but not on blue lights.
“We are very sorry we couldn’t be there sooner and for any distress or discomfort this may have caused but we have to prioritise patients in a serious or life-threatening condition.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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38 comments
felixcat - sorry but it reveals absolutely nothing other than the dross we bring into custody are generally called the great unwashed.
Dont get it confused with victims and witnesses who we are here to help as best we can.
felixcat - sorry but it reveals absolutely nothing other than the dross we bring into custody are generally called the great unwashed.
Dont get it confused with victims and witnesses who we are here to help as best we can.
The "great" unwashed, gives me the impression you think a large proportion of your customers fits that description. I would think that in reality it is not so easy to divide the sheep from the goats.
Dealing with punters who will just put on another pair of socks rather than wash their feet, who stick lighters, cigarettes and drugs up their backsides, will be quite willing to stab a cop simply because they were caught and who will think its nothing to stone your car when leaving work or attempt to follow you home after work.
Its just part and parcel of dealing with the dregs of society so in answer to your question it is easy my friend. But we are getting away from the original post so no from me on this article.
I must admit I would hate to do your job for precisely the reasons you have given. I drove a taxi on-and-off for a few years and was astonished when initially coming into contact with this sub-species of 'human' that we tend to refer to as "chavs". They are just *completely* different to most of us. They really are. *Totally* different values and way of life. I was picking up 8-month pregnant women, getting absolutely shiters on white wine in the afternoon, whilst smoking like a factory and dragging previous offspring between them and their current partner. And that was relatively *mild*. I'd hate to know what happened behind closed doors.
cyclingDMlondon, i honestly cant decide whether your just an internet troll or one of the great unwashed that likes to have a pop at anything authoritarian without the slightest knowledge of what your talking about
It's 'you are' or 'you're' an internet troll and 'you are' or 'you're' talking about.
Sorry Miss, i'll do my lines later
We all have a very simple choice, pay less in taxation and recieve a reduced health care system or pay more in taxation and recieve a high level health service. If the majority don't want to pay for health care that is fine but don't complain when it's not there. And before people talk abou waste and cost savings just remember that the NHS is the most cost effective service in the world, even our current anti Nhs government agree with this statistic.
I personally don't want a health care system that is either of a poor standard or only responds if you have insurance. To my mind health insurance is simply a taxation by another name, though you can opt out and hope you don't get ill.
Let's hope the cyclist makes a swift recovery.
This is the Tories fault, they are quite happy to wreck the NHS, stop voting for them.
Whoops, reply to Yorkshire Whippet & "you're" not your.
"Just out of curiosity, what would happen if someone tending to the old lady had called the 999 service and said that she was discharging blood from every orifice - or something equally gory?"
The call takers have a computer screen in front of them, it tells them what to ask and what to say. They take no notice of anything you say unless it ticks a box on the 'puter!
So if a person rings up saying they are a Paramedic and have a confirmed cardiac arrest, please send back up, the dispatcher will HAVE to tell the Paramedic to tip the persons head back and do breaths and compressions! (true story!!!!)
When the first eCall equipped cars appear next year, which will call an ambulance for you if you're involved in an accident, what priority will those be given by the emergency services?
Not necessarily trying to draw a comparison, just genuinely curious.
People already call an Ambulance just because they have crashed their car! And ask the Paramedic if they are OK! The Paramedic will base their opinion on whether the person is in pain or feeling unwell; I generally know when I am in pain or feeling unwell, I do not need a Paramedic to help me with this!
Where eCall cars are concerned; I suspect that the Ambulance services are s**ting themselves for the onslaught of false alarms caused by cars driving over pot-holes. If they work great! And are able to give an exact location, even better. But this is a genuinely stupid idea, hopefully the Ambulance services are able to ignore the automated calls or charge at least £1000 for the false alarms. This should give them enough money to get rid of their rickety old ambulances with 300,000 plus miles on the clock!
eCall has been in use for a few years already in Europe. The calls don't go directly to the ambulance service. They go to an eCall centre where there are trained staff (better trained than the normal dispatchers in a lot of cases) who determine if the call is real. If it is real the eCall centre conferences in the appropriate emergency service group, and that varies from region to region and country to country, to get the right emergency service in place. Its not as simple as just providing a location as many countries have different services responsible for different types of roads or need to contact a different area depending on which side of a dual carriageway you are. The company i work for ran a number of these across Europe during the early stages of setting them up.
Only in the UK can you get a take away meal delivered quicker than an ambulance or you the meal for free.
Maybe once the Conservatives have been voted in again can they get around to privatising the Ambulance Service.
Nicer ambulances, faster response times and better looking drivers.
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/96/9e/74/969e7496e4e6e83d2c5d000f...
"Only in the UK can you get a take away meal delivered quicker than an ambulance or you the meal for free.
Maybe once the Conservatives have been voted in again can they get around to privatising the Ambulance Service."
As far as I can tell this is the objective of my (tory) MP, Graham Stewart so your not that far out. He's the bloke that got a freebie helicopter ride from the company that replaced RAF Search and Rescue Squadrons and forgot to declare it in his Members Interest's Declaration, funny that I keep forgetting all the free helicoptor rides I get.
It is also worth noting that there is a national shortage of Paramedics; they are regularly abused, assaulted and rarely make it to retirement age! They either get chucked out with a bad back or die before their retirement!
Two recent studies on ambulance people at or over retirement age had to be abandoned because so many died early!
Over the weekend i've been on nightshift and at one point there was 60 emergency calls waiting for an ambulance in the tyne and wear area.
The crews are just as upset and annoyed as the rest of us with this new grading system they have.
Lets hope this lady makes a full and speedy recovery
We use a different, and what sounds like a better, system here (Ottawa). They have EMTs in cars as the first responders. They aren't tied up transporting people to hospitals, checking them in, etc. so their response times are quite good (based on my experiences). In addition to patching you up, I think they are also responsible for requesting the ambulance based on an initial assessment of the patient (avoiding false dispatches).
They are distributed around the city and not tied to a hospital or fire station. I run into one EMT+car during my rides. It is parked in a vacant lot which I initially thought was a bit strange. But then I realized they picked this spot because it had ready access to the areas main roads and highways.
The same is true in this country, once a Paramedic/Technician has assessed a casualty the call can be upgraded (or downgraded) as appropriate. Sometimes it works well. The problem in the UK is inappropriate calls (in my opinion).
A road incident is usually given as a Green2 19 minute response. Whereas if you fall over drunk you get a Red2 8 minute response. A Red2 will always take priority over a Green2. So if you say that a person has fallen over drunk and has a cut to their head, but not mention that the person is a cyclist under an HGV (and actually sober) then you should get a faster response than if you are honest! By the way, it is not relevant where the hospital is as Ambulances are not dispatched from hospitals! They are either dispatched from the Ambulance Station (believe it or not) or from a standby point!
It is worth noting that the number of calls to Ambulance Services has doubled in 10 years but their funding has remained the same! So with inflation they are getting less money. People now think nothing of calling 999 because they have a cold, cut their knee, can't be bothered to make a Dr's appointment or just drunk and want a free ride home!
Happy cycling! Oh, and +1 for the foil blanket, I have used mine once, I gave it to a family broken down by the road on a cold day! Good PR!
was two more serious accidents see the updated evening standard, can't of been pleasant though.
It's a awful mini roundabout partically for slower cyclists, it's on a railway bridge so reasonably (as london goes) steep.
apparently an ambulance was dispatched very quickly but was diverted to a patient with a more serious condition... this happened to the second ambulance dispatched to her as well...
just wonder how many ambulances were waiting in A&E car parks because they couldn't hand their patients over...
I waited 90 minutes after an RTA for an ambulance that never showed on bonfire night this year. One was dispatched but redirected en route.
I sat in a police van for an hour and then a police car for 30 minutes. The police eventually got permission from their superiors to take me to A&E. The physical pain I felt in being shuffled from vehicle to vehicle and sitting upright for 90 minutes was most unpleasant.
It was the view of the police that the London ambulance service is in crisis and the cuts have gone too deep.
They cited a more serious RTA they'd attended two days before where a motor cyclist was in a lot of trouble. It took 60 minutes for the ambulance to turn up on that occasion and they think the only reason he survived was because there was an A&E consultant on the scene who kept the poor man alive.
As I said Andy, a minimum, you can improvise dressings, torn up Rapha gear makes great bandages.
AFAIK Ambulances are also dispatched on the severity of the call, quite often the caller neglects important information, (Unconsious in one case I know off.) delaying the response.
I do think it's a good idea to carry a minimum off a foil blanket alongside your spare tubes. (Cheap and small.) Especially at this time year.
and a small first aid kit to clean / dress a wound / stop bleeding. After a recent accident miles from nowhere I now carry a bunch of stuff in my saddle bag as felt like we'd been caught a bit short.
A few years back I was hit in Regent's Park. I was lying in the road for over an hour before an ambulance arrived.
That's less than 2km from A&E.
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