Back to Control.

Well. Apart from being an hour early to Waterloo, by severely underestimating how fast the Northern Line can be, today went off without a hitch. I was with a great EMD named Glen, it was nice to be back.

Calls of note:

• Woman had pulled feeding tube out of a tracheotomy patient and wondered why it was bleeding.
• Road traffic collision that happened behind the caller, who was now a good two miles away from crash site. Why he didn't stop I don't know, but at least he made us aware. Another call came in about the crash, the driver had blacked out and crashed into a bridge pylon, with severe hip injuries.
• Heathrow Airport had a report of a plane coming in with a crew member who had been fitting, so phoned us in good time (well over an hour ahead of the plane landing) to tell us about it.
• Poor old dear who had fallen in the street, and hit her chest and throat on the kerb. I'll never forget what the caller said "I told her not to worry about calling an ambulance because they'll be here in three minutes". Sorry about a reality check about to come in darling.
• Classic heart attack, all the symptoms the system could throw at the caller she said yes to, textbook it was.
• THE PERFECT CALLER! A woman had tripped and fallen in the street, hurting her ankle. A nice gentleman had dialed 999. You could her here cries of agony over the phone, but since it wasn't life threatening it was classified as Green 2. Which meant she could be waiting a long time for an ambulance. The caller and her did, but at least control rang him back to tell him about the delay and lack of resources. Then something amazing happened. He rang back, cool, calmly and collected asked if he should transport her himself, as he could see there was no ambulances immediately available. None of this "WHERE'S MY BLOODY AMBULANCE?!!!!!" malarky, just a nice calm gentleman. Because he was so nice we even helped him get directions to the nearest A&E.
• Also lots of requests for transfers of patients with schizophrenia, all of whom had a police escort. I think I counted at least 4 in so many hours. The world is going mad I tell you, mad!

Also, receptionists at Surgeries are useless. Some of these women (sorry, not a single man was a receptionist) didn't even know the address or phone number of their workplace. I was disappointed. Towards the end of the shift I sat on dispatch for about half an hour, chatting along merrily with everyone there. I also gave some advice to an EMD 1 who is in the process of applying to Uni to do Paramedic Science. I left her my e-mail if she needed any help. That felt quite odd. Me helping, or at least giving advice to, someone who is in the position I was this time last year. Definitely odd.

PTS tomorrow!