The Random thought thread

[red750]

42 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

sit in the queue in the entry hallway for an unknown (long) time

with your amputated leg under your arm.

[willedoo]

The only recent time I've walked into emergency entailed a five hour wait before being triaged, but I wasn't a critical case. It was more a formality; the stroke clinic phoned me and wanted me to do it. As I know now, that's what I should have done in the first place instead of going through the GP and then getting a referral to the hospital. A couple of years ago when I was stretchered in after running low on the red stuff, it wasn't too long to wait. Maybe ten minutes ramped in the ambulance, then another ten in the hallway. The paramedics stayed with me and kept an eye on blood pressure so it was all good. Our local public hospitals are good in my opinion. Not the case everywhere from what you hear.

[nomadpete]

To balance my whinge about hospitals, I must add that in spite of frequent past experiences of looong wait times, our health system is generally good. I attribute this to the exceptional diligence of nursing staff, and doctors.

 

The admin, financing, etc..... well that needs work.

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by nomadpete
Fat finger fixes. I can hit 3 letters in one press!

[old man emu]

Often when I was performing constabulary duties, I had to take mental patients to the local hospital which had a psych unit. Like the ambos, I had to stay with the patient in the corridors of the A&E until the patient could be asessed by a doctor for admission. You can imagine how fustrating that was when I knew that my partner and I were the only crew available to attend to calls in our patrol. And it usually happened during evening shift on weekends when there was lots going on out on the streets.

[willedoo]

I take my hat off to you ome for doing that job. I remember four years ago when I was in icu after an artery operation, the first night there was a lot of commotion in an adjoining room. I don't know what the story was, but it sounded like a druggie who had od'd on purpose to suicide and he was very angry that he'd been revived. He was off his head and the police had to be there to keep him under control.

[facthunter]

Are they trained to handle Mental people? I think they are there more for security reasons.    It's pretty common to see.  Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Are they trained to handle Mental people?

No, and that's a big problem. People with mental illness, especially those whose illness has made them homeless usuyally have had very traumatic interactions with police whose lack of training in dealing with the minds of the mentally ill exacerbates bad interactions. The feeling of helplessness in the police to be able to reach a satisfactory solution to the problem presented by a mental illness situation is demoralising.

 

Remember,too, that for the constables called out to a mental illness situation there are likely to be aware that at the same time calls are coming in for them to deal with all the other types of situations that normally occur durig a shift. There are never enough police on duty at a given time to deal with all the calls coming in. So while police are stuck in an A&E unit with a mentally ill person, some arsehole is beting his partner and some drunk has wrapped his car around a pole. Which job gets priority?

 

As dramatist W. S. Gilbert's lyric in The Pirates of Penzance song "When a felon's not engaged in his employment" sung by the Sergeant and Chorus of Police, "A policeman's lot is not a happy one ..."