Tuesday, May 22, 2012

** Scottish Ambulance Service medics besieged by violence on calls

** UK medic gets 1 million pound settlement after doctors bungle brain op

UNITED KINGDOM NEWS

** Ambulance crews in Fife are working dangerous territory, with some 53 locations red flagged by the ambulance service as areas requiring police escorts. That is the word from Fife Today (May 18) which said the sites are places where medics had been previously threatened or attacked. Locales like Glasgow and the Lothians, meanwhile, are equally perilous for prehospital responders with one address per 10,000 being flagged. Scottish Conservative justice spokesman David McLethchie said the situation was disgraceful given the dedication ambulance medics display. A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman, meanwhile, said stats indicate over 200 recorded physical assaults on EMS staff each year.

** A retired West Midlands paramedic has received a 7 figure settlement from University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust after a bungled brain operation. The Daily Mail (Jill Reilly/May 15) said John Tunney, 63, ended up disabled after doctors removed a benign brain tumor that could have been treated with medication. According to the newspaper, surgeons cut out part of his brain instead. Now requiring round the clock care, Tunney had served as a paramedic for 23 years before retiring in 2005. The settlement award is over 1 million pounds