I couldn't help myself....sorry!!

[spenac]

Wow Dust you really have an issue with Vollies as do alot of people on this thread. I read that there was an error in the software for 911 so how the hell did it become the fault of vollies. Two off duties happen to be able to go to the scene and help while the ambulance was going off in the wrong direction BECAUSE OF A SOFTWARE ISSUE.

Now I have been a paramedic for 12 years and the reason is because our community didn't have any paramedics the day my brother in law died (sure could have used a volly that day). I do this job only for my community and I would do it for free so let me say one thing quit slamming people for volenteering there time for something they think is benifiting thier community maybe slam people for just being bad paramedic either paid or not paid.

Yes there are bad providers both paid and volly. The reason so many of us object to volly services is it kills the level of pay paid professionals can make. It constantly comes up at budget time why do you need more money that service does it for free. So I have been hurt by vollys. As to this thread, this was a dispatch error and driver error. Quick check the map to confirm where you are going. Everyone knows dispatchers get it all wrong. :twisted:

[Dustdevil]

Wow Dust you really have an issue with Vollies as do alot of people on this thread.

Congratulations on your powers of observation.

I read that there was an error in the software for 911 so how the hell did it become the fault of vollies. (sic)

Have you read the thread? It's pretty clearly spelled out several times.

Now I have been a paramedic for 12 years and the reason is because our community didn't have any paramedics the day my brother in law died (sure could have used a volly that day). I do this job only for my community and I would do it for free so let me say one thing quit slamming people for volenteering there time for something they think is benifiting thier community...

No way. I won't slam you for selfishness, as I would most vollies in the U.S., because your heart is probably in the right place. Unfortunately, your head is in the wrong place. You are apparently too myopic to see that you are the problem, not the solution. Because you give your limited services away for free, your community continues to believe they have no need to provide professional EMS. Because of that, more of your neighbours will continue to suffer and die when you couldn't be there for them. You are not a cure. You're a crutch that enables them to continue to ignore the fact that they have no real, full-time, professional EMS, as they would if you weren't giving it away for free.

So tell me, after your unfortunate incident, did you go to the media? Did you show up at every town council and county commissioner meeting from that day forward, lobbying for professional EMS? Did you make any effort to solicit a REAL, long term, professional solution for your community? Or did you just enrol into a year of school on a self-aggrandising mission to single-handedly save the world? I am betting that a year or three of political action on your part would have resulted in exponentially greater good for your community than your year or three in school. Did that ever cross your mind? Again, your heart is in the right place, but it appears that your head is all wrong, resulting in you running off half-cocked and consequently defeating your own purpose. I find that sad. I hope you can someday come to realise it.

...maybe slam people for just being bad paramedic either paid or not paid.

Nobody here is immune from my slamming, paid or otherwise. Unless, of course, she is really, really hott. Feel free to submit a recent photo for consideration.

[Scaramedic]

Unless, of course, she is really, really hott. Feel free to submit a recent photo for consideration.

Submitted for your consideration.

[rock_shoes]

Submitted for your consideration.

Well I don't know about Dust but I say this subject is exempt. I'll even let it slide that she's dressed up like a fire fighter.

[Happiness]

Dust re-read what I said. "I would do it for free" I didn't say I did do it for free. And to answer your question about going to media ect. Yes to some degree that was done by family members and all my original training was paid for by our Village council and all my upgrades have been paid by my employer.

My point is that Vollies seem to get slammed at every opportunity and I don't feel that that is fair. If they disrupt your pay scale then maybe you should become a part of the solution and go to your governments and lobby that all paramedics should a certin level of training and be paid for their services and get volunteers out of it.

You know there are many threads where you have alot of good information but maybe you should also think about how and what you say because sometimes you come across as an arogant ass (just an observation)

[Dustdevil]

Dust re-read what I said. "I would do it for free" I didn't say I did do it for free.

My apologies. You are right. I did read that correctly, but then forgot about it as I posted my reply. Since you were so passionate about defending vollies, I made an incorrect assumption. Again, I apologise for the error.

However, the point regarding volunteers in general remains valid. And I can see how it would be less obvious in the Canadian system, where standards are much, much different. But there are plenty of us trying to do exactly what you suggest, which is to increase our professional standards in order to improve the system and the care it delivers. In fact, that's what many of us are talking about here every day on this forum. But unfortunately, there are many, many more who are fighting against us, including those who don't want their hobby taken away from them by professional standards of education and performance. Those are the people I am talking about. Those are the people who hold the entire profession back. And those are the people who cost our community the lives our neighbours. I think that, if you really think objectively about it, you can see that their selfishness is indeed worthy of any "slamming" they get from me or anybody else.

[Richard B the EMT]

I feel I need to restate my point, that it was a computer assisted dispatch glitch, that could have happened to either a paid OR volunteer ambulance service. I live in a section of Queens County, New York City, that has a Hillside Avenue, in a private, gated residential section, but I am also aware that there is another Hillside Avenue in a more central section of Queens county, which is about half and half residential and major business area. As recently as a month ago, I heard one of my local units being sent out on a shooting call in the gated community, only to be cancelled half a minute later, as an "inland" unit had just been flagged down at the job in one of the business areas in central Queens.

I must presume in any CAD system, or even with maps on the ambulances, that mistakes like this will continue to happen, but all parties concerned are trying to eliminate the glitches.

[spenac]

Treat the patient, not the machine.

Read the map, not rely on dispatch.

[Happiness]

Okay now Dust you are very right in your opinion. I believe if you are going to be a paramedic paid or not should be at the same standard. Thank-you for the explaination of why you don't agree with volly paramedics in the states and I hope you the best in your fight. Please remember though that there are Vollys that come to this site for I would hope advise and to learn from those who have the knowledge and expertise.

As for Dispatch making address errors. I as alot know live on the Queen Charlotte Islands and out dispatch is out of Kamloops. I have been dispatched to Queen Charlotte City from my home town of Masset and it is a 1.5 hr trip. When they gave me the address I corrected them and they dispatched the proper crew. We are all human and we make mistakes but you should be diligant in knowing your area. I bet if you look at it the accual numbers of the same named streets are very different. The reason I could let them know they were dispatching the wrong crew is that our town dosen't have avenues its streeds or roads.

[Richard B the EMT]

Treat the patient, not the machine.

Read the map, not rely on dispatch.

Treat the patients, UPGRADE the machines, read the maps, and trust dispatch, just not totally.