Pensioner Ellen Summers was left unaided by paramedics because of health and safety rules
Posted on 10/23/2006 9:49:11 PM PDT by Stoat
Pensioner Ellen Summers was left unaided by paramedics because of health and safety rules
A frail 82-year-old woman was forced to shuffle up a set of steps on her bum after paramedics refused to help because of health and safety regulations.
Ambulance bosses are to carry out an investigation after Ellen Summers claimed she was forced to pull herself backwards up steps and along a corridor to get into her house.
The angry pensioner from Bradford, West Yorks., said the crew made no attempt to help her get into her home after they dropped her off from Bradford Royal Infirmary where she had been treated for a leg injury after a fall.
It was only when Mrs Summers reached her sofa that they helped her into a sitting position, saying health and safety guidelines prevented them from lifting people - despite the fact Mrs Summers is 5ft and weighs just nine stone.
Mrs Summers' daughter Patricia Wells, of Leeds, West Yorks., is demanding to know why her mother was "treated in such an inhumane and degrading way".
She said: "The trauma of the fall was bad enough for her to cope with but after having to drag herself into the house she was left exhausted and for a person in a heart condition this could have proved fatal."
Mrs Summers, who has had three knee replacements, fell at about 3.15pm on October 2, while getting off the sofa.
Her daughter Denise Summers, 56, called 999 and paramedics used a wheelchair to transport Mrs Summers to the ambulance.
After an x-ray and treatment at the local hospital - which included putting a full splint on her leg, preventing her from bending it - an ambulance took Mrs Summers home.
The paramedics used a trolley to get Mrs Summers out of the ambulance but when they reached the steps up to the front door they told her she would have to get off and go it alone.
Mrs Summer's said: "They said they could not put me in the chair because I could not bend my leg and it might hit them in the face so they put me down on the second step and I inched up on my bottom while they stood watching.
"They even said they were amazed I had done it. I was out of breath because I have a bad heart and my hands were full of pebbles."
Mrs Summers is now so nervous of travelling by ambulance that when she has to attend hospital she calls a taxi with wheelchair access.
"I will only use an ambulance again if I am unconscious," she said.
John Darley, Yorkshire Ambulance Service operations director said: "We are sorry that the patient and their family do not feel they received an appropriate level of care from Yorkshire Ambulance Service as we endeavour to provide the best possible care to all of our patients.
"We are taking the family's concerns very seriously and have been in contact with them directly.
"We are currently carrying out a full investigation and will keep the family fully informed of our findings.
"We would like to reassure patients across Yorkshire that their safety and welfare is our up most priority."
Is this the way to eliminate the surplus population?
dragging is good exercise
This has nothing to do with the rights and wrongs of the British National Health Service. This is a product of legalism, a rising tide of bureaucracy tied to a blame culture and an insistence on "rights" over duty and form over substance.
And don't sneer USA. It's coming your way soon.
As a sidenote: There is nothing worse on this earth than a Health and Safety rep who enjoys his work!
"oh come now, we get horror stories from the US regarding litigation and unmeritorious lawsuits. Some of these are absolutely ridiculous"
I can't argue with that.
Is the Brit health service unionized? They pushing for more perks for themselves by "work-to-rule"?
It is unionized, but they're not the problem here. The root of this is fear - fear of getting into trouble with the Health and Safety executive.
The way things are going, every worker will need to be followed around by a personal lawyer before too long...
In fact, why didn't the hospital just call a patient transport service? Why was an ambulance dispatched for this when anyone with an EMT-basic certification and a handicapped-accessable van could have done it?
All excellent questions and entirely valid and insightful points. As someone who works in EMS here in the USA, one thing I can tell you is that there is a tendency among a great many members of the public, including those in the media, to refer to anyone they see working on an ambulance as a "paramedic", just as all semiautomatic rifles are 'machine guns' and all rifles that have a dark finish and / or look ugly are "assault rifles". Most people aren't aware of the existence of certification / licensure differences among EMS workers, nor do they particularly care. My first guess is that this ignorance MAY be part of the equation in this article, which is the reason why I chose the expression "Medics" in my own added title description....I didn't want to repeat something that I felt may be untrue. Given this uncertainty, I am furthermore hesitant to fully accept that the vehicle involved was a true 'ambulance' when it may have only been a van with flashing lights on top. In general, I am hesitant to give a tremendous degree of assumed credit for verbal and / or factual precision to journalists...I haven't been given much reason to, given their track record over the past several decades. :-)
That being said, if the basics of this story are indeed true then this lady was treated in an absolutely abominable and inhuman fashion, and all parties involved should be instantly fired from whatever positions they do in fact hold and should be banned from ever holding any form of caregiving position until the end of time. No person should treat someone under their care in such a breathtakingly brutal and potentially dangerous manner. If it's true that they were in fact paramedics, then this also explains in large measure why the UK healthcare system is being crushed by it's own largesse.
unions/muzzies/hillarycare.......
just wait until is happens in the US!!!!1
This story is an excellent reminder of what may be in store for us here in the USA if we allow the Left to gain full control of healthcare.
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