My dwindle

Two duties over the course of the weekend. The good news is that it seems that my bad spate of patients with St John Ambulance is coming to an end. Last Wednesday I was at the international match for the under 18 side. There was a shortage of members at the game and I ended up covering both the First Aid post and a corner at the opposite side of the field (where I was for the majority of the game). There was no injuries (bar one which was seen by another corner and required no real input).

Saturday saw another premiership match. I was deployed to the first aid room of the stadium. Over the course of the last few matches this has been where within a few moments of the gates opening there had been at least one person present. In fact there was nobody seen in the first half and it was near full time before there was anyone presented. The person who did complained of pains. I had a look at them and could not find anything seriously wrong and suspected there was nothing more then a minor ailment that was causing the problem. However, to be on the safe side, I asked for the duty Doctor to attend. In due course, he did. Unlike certain other medical bloggers, I believe the type of person who joins a volunteer organisation which consists primarily of volunteer First Aiders is not like some of the anarchic opinions offered on the blog sphere. Indeed, the Doctor listened to my handover, agreed that I seemed to be on the right lines and carried out a full diagnostic check to back up our findings. That done, a recommended prescription was given and I administered the medication to the patient. That concluded the match.

Today, I was covering a half marathon. I was put with another St John Ambulance volunteer, this time somebody trained to Ambulance Aid 1 standard. As there was a Paramedic and myself there, it was decided that I would form a response team for the far part of the course. We were due to mobilise to a roundabout on a closed road, before moving to a leisure centre. The first part went well (the roundabout bit near the start). At 11:30 we were told that we were going to be picked up by an event mini bus and taken to the second deployment point. After being picked up, we overheard there were patients. These were being seen to by both the ambulances that were on duty. In the meantime, we were driven down a road that turned out to be gridlocked and we sat for over an hour in this state. This was not good as we were the only people left free to respond to a call. Indeed, there was a message come over the Marshall's radio of a patient at one of the points, though there was no message passed to St John. I did radio it in but there seemed to be no immediate need for us. After a while, we were told by the radio to alight near where we were and take up position there. By this time most of the runners had passed us in the mini bus anyway, so we were treated to a quiet hour and a quarter while the last runner came up. After a run back in the ambulance which was following the last runner, I got off duty (with a free tee shirt).

In the world of my job, I have decided that "Hospital A" are really not for me and have told them I shall not be taking up the post. I have been treated better by the other hospital. They have been far more pro-active and welcoming, and the kind of ward that does that is the kind that normally will try to take care of its staff. While it is only a 6 months contract, I have been successful in the post for the community hospital near me. By the time the paperwork is all sorted, I am hoping that this will be roughly time to finish and change jobs.