Rushing to a call, time is of the essence. Targets are also set to respond in a timely manner to the call.
Mr. Godfrey Smith, a First Responder rushing to attend a medical emergency, has been sacked on a technicality.
Countless medical personnel at all levels have been found wanting in recent years. There have been cases reported of gross negligence, involving injury and death.
There was the case of a doctor involved in the murder of 92 elderly patients at a Hampshire hospital. Government Ministers have withheld a report and denied funding to permit inquests to proceed in that particular case.
Officials at all levels have connived to excuse and deny and the people concerned have carried on working, their fitness to practise uncompromised, despite acknowledged 'failings'.
Only recently, there was an awful case involving massive overdoses of morphine that resulted in the deaths of two infants.
Mr. Godfrey is sacked on a technicality. There is something terribly wrong here. A cult of death is rampant that stalks our hospital wards. The mindset is turned on its head. The priorities are back to front.
This is the newspaper that the pro-death brigade - the loyal Ellershaw Red Guards (or blackguards) - persist in calling the Daily Fail...
This is Mail Online -
Bosses at South Central Ambulance Service dismissed Mr Smith after checking instruments in his liveried Land Rover and discovering he had travelled down a shopping street in the centre of Oxford at 13mph faster than he should have done.
Mr Smith has been driving for 46 years and says he always obeys speed limits. He has attended more than 2,000 call-outs and saved numerous lives.
He added that the Sat-nav was still reporting the road was a 30mph zone and he was unaware he had broken the speed limit.
Mr Smith’s son Matthew, 19, has now resigned as a responder in support of his father and handed his marked ambulance car back.
He said: 'I thought it was bad enough for my dad to see that every day and to know that he can’t use it, let alone me going to use it.'
Former patient David Hatton said his life was saved by Mr Smith in 2007 when he collapsed with a heart attack at his Faringdon home.
Mr Hatton said Mr Smith’s use of a defibrillator and CPR kept him alive in the hour before he got to hospital.
He added: 'It is very petty. How can they get people to volunteer for the service and not give them the tools to do the job?
Ambulances drivers employed by the trust have to get to 75 per cent of most serious calls in eight minutes and latest figures, for July, show it hit 84 per cent of its target in Oxfordshire.
The same trust hit the headlines last year after it was disclosed it one of its senior officers was a convicted murderer.
The trust had failed to check on the criminal past of operations manager Robert King before employing him.
Mr King retired after he was arrested for drink-driving before his previous conviction was revealed. The trust refused to justify its action in relation to Mr Smith.
Mr Smith’s son, performing arts student Matthew, 19, who also worked as a first responder, has now resigned in support of his father.
He said: ‘I had to stand by my father. He has dedicated a large part of his life to the service and I know it would be difficult for him.
‘As well as his job, he would do at least 20 hours a week volunteer work with the service, and most of it was overnight. He has spent most Christmases and New Year’s Eves going out to emergencies. I can’t even tell you the last time I spent a New Year’s Eve with my father, as he has always been out on calls.’
Ambulance drivers employed by the trust have to get to 75 per cent of most serious calls in eight minutes, and the latest figures, for July, show it hit 84 per cent of its target in Oxfordshire.
A spokesman for campaign group Patient Concern said: ‘We think it’s outrageous. The priority is saving lives rather than complying with road regulations.’
A letter to Mr Smith from the trust said: ‘It is felt that your standard of driving on this occasion fell far below that required of someone driving a SCAS marked vehicle.’
SCAS refused to comment on Mr Smith’s case.
The priority is saving life. Everyone
is aware that a high-visibility, blue-light vehicle isn't speeding on its way
for a joy ride. Drivers pull over to make way.
Mr. Smith, having done this job for 15 years, would not risk life on his rush
to save a life. This is madness.
This is the 21st century...
First Priority: Is there an Advance Directive on the system?
Second priority: Is this life worth saving?
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