Bicycle Ambulance

Duncan Smith said:

soup said:

John Kane said:

Still 5 stone is a LOT of kit.

Conjecture :-
Mmm 5 stone = 70lbs Maybe someone said we have to "move" 70 lbs
meaning the bike as well and whoever wrote the script for Nadia has
taken that to mean 70lbs and the bike.

--
'S rioghal mo dhream
Ciamar a tha sibhwww.cheesesoup.myby.co.uk

Maybe they meant 5Kg - that's what my panniers normally way. Hope the
ambulance doesn't have to be dispatched to assist run-down cyclist
paramedic any time soon! :-)

As luck would have it, I met today a cycling paramedic and a cycling
policeman. I didn't get to speak with the cycling paramedic, but
according to the City of London policeman, who tried riding the
paramedic's bike, "they are bloody heavy".

Coyoteboy said:

Just seems a little bit like "making jobs", i mean ultimately it would
be a good idea to have someone stood on every street at 100m intervals
to relay info back to the control centre so no-one needed to dispatch
the cyclists or the ambulances too... 🙂 How far do you go? Where can
justify having these additional resources? What measure do you use to
select?
The only reason I can see for having them is if they cant get to people
within the allotted response time.

There's also the positive image of cyclists and cycling bike
ambulances promotes. I guess that's the main reason for TfL
sponsoring the bike paramedics.

Coyoteboy said:

Tom Crispin said:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LTwxxMaiYg

Seems a bit mad if they dispatch a normal ambulance as well, plus they
only cover 5sq km? Thats an area only 2250mx2250m?! Doesnt seem a lot
when you look at the "quantity of manpower per sq km"?

I don't know London (UK that is) but what is the mean density during
working hours in that area? It may be the quantity of manpower per
persons in the district.

I used to live near a large government office complex in Hull Québec
and they seemed to have an ambulance permanently stationed there. I
imagine the working population would have been in the several
thousands.

soup said:

Coyoteboy said:

ive not worked superscripts that out yet! 🙂

All programs > Accesories > Character map 🙂

I'm on Linux. Like everything Linuxy - its bloody hard to find what you
want, but when you do it works like a dream, flawlessly and forever. And
usually from the commandline 🙂

Coyoteboy said:

soup said:

Coyoteboy said:

soup wrote:
> There are four cyclists involved, four people in 5sq kilometers does
> not seem a lot to me (especially when that 5 Km" is in central London).
Its not 5km^2 though, its 5sq km, thats smaller than my local town centre

My bad. I meant 5 sq Kilometers, as I said at first, it was only in
the second instance I got it so terribly wrong. I (IMHO) still think
four people covering that area (with that density of population) is

reasonable even factoring in that there are "normal" ambulances as well .
Thats ok, im still reeling at the fact that you managed to put a
superscript in, ive not worked that out yet! 🙂

Quoted message said:

Of course there will be the cost issue as well, one person on a bike
costs a lot less than two in a "proper" ambulance. How long before
someone comes on telly saying the bike paramedics are so successful four
more are going to be introduced, while quietly in the background two
"proper" ambulances are removed.

True. Not being on the cutting edge of the ambulance service im not
really qualified to express whether those are needed or not I guess.

they have had motorbike paramedics at least in urban places, nr where my
folks are the ambulances often wait at the top of the valley, as it
takes them a fair old time to climb that, being heavy vans.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

Coyoteboy said:

soup said:

Coyoteboy said:

ive not worked superscripts that out yet! 🙂

All programs > Accesories > Character map 🙂

I'm on Linux.

AltGr-2

B
--
Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland
Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F2-025 x 3147
[email hidden] http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html

Brendan Halpin said:

Coyoteboy said:

soup said:

Coyoteboy wrote:

> ive not worked superscripts that out yet! 🙂
All programs > Accesories > Character map 🙂

I'm on Linux.

AltGr-2

B

WOO! Genius!³ I didnt even know that key worked for anything 🙂 ¹²½ 🙂
Actually thats a lie, i knew it did some special characters, ive just
never experimented with them. Thats me entertained for a few weeks 🙂
I'll be throwing in ¾'s left right and centre even when not needed lol.

soup said:

Coyoteboy said:

Seems a bit mad if they dispatch a normal ambulance as well,

Think of them as really good first aiders with a really big first aid
box their job is to get there quickly and keep the casualty alive until
the ambulance gets there alternatively if (as usual) it is "just"
someone who has tripped or whatever, and that person does not require or
want hospital help, (I would imagine) they can contact the ambulance
crew and get them to abort.

Quoted message said:

plus they only cover 5sq km? Thats an area only 2250mx2250m?! Doesnt
seem a lot when you look at the "quantity of manpower per sq km"?

AIUI and going by this page :-http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/ambulance/ambcycles1.htm
There are four cyclists involved, four people in 5sq kilometers does not
seem a lot to me (especially when that 5 Km² is in central London).

One of these turned up outside our local Tesco in Aylesbury when
someone had a seizure outside the store.

I assume they were based locally and didn't cycle all the way up the
A41!

MBQ

in article [email hidden],
[email hidden] at [email hidden] wrote on 28/9/07 13:24:

Quoted message said:

One of these turned up outside our local Tesco in Aylesbury when
someone had a seizure outside the store.

I assume they were based locally and didn't cycle all the way up the
A41!

MBQ

I saw another outside the Covered Market in Oxford this lunchtime.

Ben

Ben Micklem said:

[email hidden] wrote

Quoted message said:

One of these turned up outside our local Tesco in Aylesbury when
someone had a seizure outside the store.

I saw another outside the Covered Market in Oxford this lunchtime.

"They" quite possibly are all over the place but that video relates to
those in London.

--
'S rioghal mo dhream
Ciamar a tha sibh
www.cheesesoup.myby.co.uk

in message <[email hidden]>, Coyoteboy

(') said:

Just seems a little bit like "making jobs", i mean ultimately it would
be a good idea to have someone stood on every street at 100m intervals
to relay info back to the control centre so no-one needed to dispatch
the cyclists or the ambulances too... 🙂 How far do you go? Where can
justify having these additional resources? What measure do you use to
select?
The only reason I can see for having them is if they cant get to people
within the allotted response time.

The City of London has the highest daytime population density of anywhere
in Britain. The traffic is very congested most of the time, and motor
traffic is often a lot slower than bicycle traffic.

The man who dies of a heart attack while the ambulance is stuck in traffic
on its way to him doesn't think this is 'making jobs'. For a lot of types
of severe medical emergency, it's the time to start of qualified treatment
which is the difference between life and death, so if these cyclists can
reduce the average time between a 999 call and a trained, well equipped
paramedic arriving on the scene by only a few seconds they're going to
save a lot o lives every year.

One of them could be yours.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; An enamorata is for life, not just for weekends.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

The City of London has the highest daytime population density of anywhere
in Britain. The traffic is very congested most of the time, and motor
traffic is often a lot slower than bicycle traffic.

I take it you haven't experienced Congestion Charged London then.

--
Tony

" I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
Bertrand Russell

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Coyoteboy

(') said:

Just seems a little bit like "making jobs", i mean ultimately it would
be a good idea to have someone stood on every street at 100m intervals
to relay info back to the control centre so no-one needed to dispatch
the cyclists or the ambulances too... 🙂 How far do you go? Where can
justify having these additional resources? What measure do you use to
select?
The only reason I can see for having them is if they cant get to people
within the allotted response time.

The City of London has the highest daytime population density of anywhere
in Britain. The traffic is very congested most of the time, and motor
traffic is often a lot slower than bicycle traffic.

The man who dies of a heart attack while the ambulance is stuck in traffic
on its way to him doesn't think this is 'making jobs'. For a lot of types
of severe medical emergency, it's the time to start of qualified treatment
which is the difference between life and death, so if these cyclists can
reduce the average time between a 999 call and a trained, well equipped
paramedic arriving on the scene by only a few seconds they're going to
save a lot o lives every year.

Right. In particular, they probably have a defibrillator on the bike. An
awful lot of people die of heart attacks but might come back to life
again if you can jump start them within 5 or 10 minutes. But wait 20 and
they stay dead.

Keeping a defibrillator in the office is also a good idea. You can get
electronic ones these days that require only minimal training to operate.

Anyway are these NHS ambulance bikes or St John's Ambulance? The latter
I thought were volunteers so it's hardly "making jobs".

Ben C said:

Anyway are these NHS ambulance bikes or St John's Ambulance? The latter
I thought were volunteers so it's hardly "making jobs".

They are the London Ambulance Service, the only London-wide NHS Trust.

Simon Brooke <[email hidden]> wrote: [..]

Quoted message said:

The man who dies of a heart attack while the ambulance is stuck in traffic
on its way to him doesn't think this is 'making jobs'. [...]

The man who dies doesn't think anything much any more, in fact.

Sorry... bicycle ambulances are a good idea in busy city centres, but the
above seemed a really tasteless argument for them.
--
MJ Ray http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html tel:+44-844-4437-237 -