There is a commonly occurring scenario amongst our colleagues in green and blue where they end up conspiring together to cause a nightmare and it needs to stop before someone is disciplined or worse, hurt.  Wouldn’t BLOG on this unless it had happened a large number of times and I’ll prepare you: I’m banging on at length in this one to set it all out again(!) because it really grinds my gears how often I hear of this!  But if you just want the punchline, there is a Quick Guide on responding to mental health crisis in private premises.

It usually goes something like this –

Paramedics attend a 999 call reporting a mental health crisis on private premises. When they arrive they discover a non-compliant patient in distress and after talking to them, they form the view that the person has potentially serious mental health problems and appears to lack capacity around their immediate decision-making. They are concerned the person would be at risk if they were left at home. Paramedics call for police support and when...

This police blog continues, Read More...

Jeanmarie Perrone MD, an emergency physician and medical toxicologist, answers questions from a reporter about the death of a 10-year- old boy in Miami and the dangers of fentanyl exposure.  Hers is a voice of reason in an understandable climate of hysteria.

Miami Boy’s Death Shows Powerful Opioid’s Chilling Potential

The case is tragic.  A 10-year-old boy walking home from the pool somehow encounters fentanyl and on arrival at home, vomits, collapses and dies, and later tests positive for fentanyl and heroin.

Miami chief: no leads, suspects in young boy’s opioid death

Who knows what the final details of the case will be, but the facts of fentanyl exposure remain the same.  Dermal contact is highly unlikely to cause an overdose.  Injection, inhalation or ingestion are the areas of concern.

CDC: Protecting Workers at Risk

The boy did live in a neighborhood known as “ground zero” of the area’s opioid epidemic.  Could he have found heroin/fentanyl on his way home, and either touched the whitish powder (heroin is often cut...

This ambulance blog continues, Read More...

……..but what your country can do for you. No, that’s not a misprint, it’s how I meant it.

The 20th July 2017 was a dark day in the middle of a dark era.

In no particular order as they say

Parliament broke for it’s Summer Recess.  No run of the mill business, discussions, debates.  How very convenient.

The Office of National Statistics released the latest ‘official’ crime statistics.

Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed there were 5.9 million incidents of crime covered by the survey, a 7% reduction compared with the previous year’s survey.

The police recorded nearly 5 million offences in the year ending March 2017, which represented an annual rise of 10%; this increase is likely to reflect a range of factors, which vary by crime type, including continuing improvements to recording processes and practices, expanded offence coverage and also genuine increases in some crime types.

One set says ‘Higher’, the other set says ‘Lower’ and I have seen many arguments and...

This police blog continues, Read More...