ambulance
Amputation of Alice
The five most empty and insincere words in speech are, “I’ll be there for you.”
It’s all the more worrying that by the time Ambulance (BBC1) returned for an 11th season, they appear to have become the unofficial motto of the NHS.
The film ‘Ambulance’ was filmed during ambulance strikes earlier this year with the voice of a mother pleading for help. Her six-year-old daughter had her arm impaled with a spike. The wound was painful but did not appear to be immediately life threatening. And that meant no ambulance. “Are you coming to the hospital alone?” asked the operator.
“There are no taxis available,” the mother begged before a passing Samaritan offered to drive her. The 911 call had done nothing but waste vital minutes for the injured child. Moments later, another frantic caller was brushed off: “You have no other way to get to the hospital?”
The five most empty and insincere words in language are: ‘I’ll be there for you.’ It makes it all the more worrying that by the time Ambulance (BBC1) returned for an 11th season, they appear to have become the unofficial motto of the NHS
The film ‘Ambulance’ was filmed during ambulance strikes earlier this year with the voice of a mother pleading for help
In this case, a neighbor jumped in with a car. When the patient apologized for calling a day of strike — in fact, for being so ill that he had to call 999 — the caregiver blithely replied, “We’re absolutely here for everyone.” So never think ‘that you can’t call us.’
Don’t hesitate to call. They will be there for you. They won’t send an ambulance, but if you can get through without help, they will be there.
A paramedic claimed the strike was carried out to help patients and not abandon them. “Nobody wants to put patients at risk,” he said. “But the reason for the strike is to disclose that there are not enough crews and staff. ‘At what point do we say we have to do something?’
There is an obvious answer to this: do not do anything selfish and heartless that will make the situation worse.
Nobody denies that the emergency services are stretched to the limit. But shutting down this service altogether is an irresponsible and callous way of highlighting the issues – a way that aims to put a political stranglehold on the government at the expense of the people who are suffering and even dying.
Bake the bacon from the evening
Jane Asher assessed the Chelsea buns in The Royal Borough (Chapter 5) and bit into one to find olives, tomatoes, anchovies and bacon.
Well, she called for “exciting and different” with “a vague resemblance” to the classic bun.
That’s very vague.
Another worker admitted that it really was about the pay. “Everyone is on strike because nobody can afford to live anymore,” he said.
This is a shocking statement when one of the main drivers of the cost-of-living crisis is post-lockdown inflation. The whole of Britain has shut down to ‘save the NHS’ – and healthcare workers are retaliating with a strike for more money.
The reality is that many in the NHS detest the strikes but are afraid to say so for fear of being denounced as ‘scabs’ by union activists. Certainly no one has spoken out against industrial action in this episode, or even suggested that there might be other ways of exerting pressure.
For the Paralympic swimmer and multiple gold medalist Alice Tai, a karaoke night ended with an ambulance call in the sports documentary “Amputating Alice” (Chapter 4).
Alice, 24, was undergoing surgery to remove her deformed and arthritic right leg below the knee when she slipped and injured the stump.
For the Paralympic swimmer and multiple gold medalist Alice Tai, a karaoke night ended with an ambulance call in the sports documentary Amputating Alice (Chapter 4).
Photos of the open wound were horrific, but this one-off film didn’t elaborate on the trauma, and neither did Alice. She’d wanted to get rid of the pesky limb since she was a young girl, she said, and when doctors finally agreed it was better to have surgery, she threw a “bye-bye leg party.”
Stoic and determined, she threw herself back into training as soon as possible with the aim of competing at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
In an enchanting finale, we saw Alice triumph both by the pool and at home with her family while her grandma cheered on the TV. What a boost for the spirits.