A third Shropshire ambulance service worker has been suspended from duty in a row over leaked documents.Shrewsbury based ambulance technician Steve Jetley was suspended last night after a meeting with senior managers from the West Midlands Ambulance Trust which runs the Shropshire service.
Two Shrewsbury colleagues – a controller and another technician – had already been suspended.
Trust bosses say the move has been taken while they investigate possible breaches of the Data Protection Act and has nothing to do with claims that ambulances are being sent out of Shropshire to cover the West Midlands.
Mr Jetley produced information at a trust board meeting last week showing that on one particular date four Shropshire ambulances had been sent out of the county.
While they were away it took longer to deal with an emergency call in Shropshire than the standard response time.
Mr Jetley said today that he had no regrets over the action he had taken and denied that he had released any confidential patient information.
Trust spokesman Murray MacGregor said today that the suspensions had “absolutely nothing” to do with the current consultation over emergency control centres or with concerns about ambulances being moved from Shropshire to the West Midlands to transport seriously ill patients to hospital.
“It is purely to do with a possible breach of the Data Protection Act,” he said.
“The trust is determined to protect the confidentiality of patients as the people of Shropshire would expect it to.”
Meanwhile the proposal to reorganise control centres – including the closure of Shrewsbury – will be the focus of public meetings at the Shirehall, Shrewsbury, on August 28 and Civic Offices, Telford, on August 30.
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20 Comments
Staff – telling the public the truth, we cann’t have that can we.
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It has to be of concern that West Midland Ambulance Service appear to be misleading the public as to how resources in the county are being used. ‘Mutual aid’ between counties, especially in border areas, is a long and honourable tradition amongst ALL the emergency services to enable 999 calls to be covered in a timely fashion.
However in this case it would appear that the ambulances were not used to cover 999 calls in the West Midlands urban area, but rather ‘urgent’ cases (where a time limit is given to get patients into a specified hospital). Surely West Midlands should have more robust procedures for dealing with this category of call rather than stripping resources from rural areas to cover them?
What makes this more serious is that the Ambulance Service has repeatedly denied that vehicles from rural areas would be used to make up shortfalls in urban areas (or that a centralised control facility would make this practice more likely). The latest revelations rather blow a hole in their assurances. Whistleblowers should not be victimised where there is an issue of public concern at stake; clearly there would appear to be one here. The Ambulance Service is adopting a rather cowardly stance in using ‘data protection’ as a fairly weak justification for staff suspensions while saying its inappropriate to comment on any other issues.
A rather worrying way of dealing with legitimate areas of concern and one which I can only assume will have a negative effect on the overall morale of the Shropshire Ambulance staff.
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Great. So in an already overstretched service we now have three trained personnel on suspension for revealing the very extent to which that service is being overstretched.
It’s perfectly possible and reasonable to investigate breaches of the DPA without suspending vital staff.
The alleged breach may be simply because they’ve been talking amongst themselves about cases – I’ve followed this story carefully and have seen no reference to individual personal details in the press or on TV.
So much for the idea that health workers can safely ‘blow the whistle!’
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HOW CAN WEST MIDLANDS AMBULANCE SERVICE SAY THAT THE SUSPENSIONS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MOVEMENT OF AMBULANCES OUT OF SHROPSHIRE ? IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THIS. IF AMBULANCES PARAMEDICS/TECHNICIANS THAT THE SHROPSHIRE PEOPLE PAY FOR, ARE USED FOR OTHER AREAS SUCH AS BIRMINGHAM, THEN THESE PEOPLE WOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO RISK THEIR JOBS IN WARNING THE PEOPLE OF SHROPSHIRE. I HOPE THESE BRAVE PEOPLE GATHER ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT AND HAVE OPENED YOUR EYES TO WHAT IS HAPPENING UNDER THE NEW WEST MIDLANDS REGIME.
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Feels like a cover up to me, why would staff want to pass on patients details all of the sudden.These people do a execellent job,in an already over stretched service, now it has 3 less personnel for cover. All i can say is that there are to many chiefs and not enough real workers.
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Come on back these ambulance people up……its shropshires ambulance service and it belongs to you. back em up or lose it
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BACK THIS CREW UP…THEY HAVE PUT THERE JOBS ON THE LINE TO PROTECT YOU
SO PEOPLE OF SHROPSHIRE BACK THEM UP
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“It is purely to do with a possible breach of the Data Protection Act,”
Oh Come On Mr. MacGregor. Do you honestly believe that us ‘Joe Soap’ Public believe for one moment that these guy’s have been suspended because of this act?
Patient confidentiality is what would be of concern to anyone looking into such infringements of the act, but none of us believes that disclosing of the whereabouts of our own Ambulance vehicles at anyone time, has any problem being in the public domain.
Bringing to our attention of how your trust is mis-using our own ambulance personel and reducing our coverage in this county in this way, is indeed what is important for us to know.
That we now know, thanks to these guy’s, is really behind these suspensions and has nothing to do with the act to which you refer.
Yes it may have caused the trust embarrassment, GREAT AND SO IT SHOULD! We guessed this would happen once you got your hands on our staff, and how right we were.
These guy’s are to be congratulated for what they have done in bringing this to our attention. Please be aware that we are watching you very closely to see how far you go down this road of finger pointing, and trust that you will accept that an over reaction on your part will do nothing to enhance any confidence in the trusts ability to serve this County as we entitled to expect.
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I Smell a witch hunt…
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I was listening and there was no breach of data protection at all. Its about time that the public really knew what goes on with their ambulance service and I hope to god I never need an ambulance in an emergency situation. Good on all the staff at Shrewsbury you have my support and im sure the whole of Shropshire thank you for trying to SAVE our lives. Is that not what your bosses should really be looking at ????
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Yes, it is an absolute disgrace. They can’t have dedicated employees of the Ambulance Trust acting as whistleblowers!
They cannot have the public (who pay for the service) being kept informed.
Instead, let’s hide behind a hapless spokesman and mutter “Data Protection Act” as a smokescreen.
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As a colleague of the three suspended ambulance staff i wish to remain anonymous for the fear of being suspended for speaking the truth.
Firstly I would like to correct Mr MacGregor on a few points. The patients that Shropshire ambulances are dispatched to in the Birmingham and Black country area, are not the most seriously ill as he put it, these patients have already been assesed by a doctor, who has decided that they are not seriously ill but need further assesment in hospital, usually just x-rays or blood tests. Of the many patients i have been to in these areas, most said they would have made there own way to hospital if given the option. Most are suffering with injuries that are days or weeks old and do not require any treatment en-route to hospital, so where is the need for an emergency ambulance?
My second point is that Shropshire Ambulance service cover is worked out on potential need. During certain times there are as few as 10 ambulances covering the whole of shropshire, by removing just 2 vehicles to other areas we are down 20%. All it takes is another queue outside the A&E department and a small road traffic collision and the whole of shropshire is without emergency cover.
It cannot be right and completely indefensible if a patient died for no other reason than an ambulance wasn’t sent due to them all being out of area doing none emergency work.
I believe the problems in birmingham and black country should be addressed, If they are too busy for there work load then they need to invest in training and retaining staff, rather than dangerously lowering levels of cover in other parts of the country.
The staff at Shropshire Ambulance are doing a great job and should be recognised for standing up and making these issues public, lives are at risk!
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Don’t worry – surely this government introduced legislation to protect whistleblowers? (Unless of course they’re exposing failures in government policy.)
The people who should be suspended are the ones who are trying to hide behind the Data Protection Act, but somehow I don’t see that happening.
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Working on the front line for Shropshire Amb I know this is not a isolated case.
We are constantly sent to West Mids to transport GP Urgent’s (not seriously ill patients as Mr MacGregor says), these are Patients that need further investigation into their conditions so a bed is booked for them on wards such as medical assessment units or the surgical equivalent by a GP.
I have witnessed for my self pulling into a West Midlands hospital and seeing a further 3 Shropshire Ambulances, making my self the 4th unloading at the Medical Assessment Unit. Not A+E with “seriously ill patients”! Four ambulances away from Shropshire can be 25% of our ambulances out of county.
Remember CFR’s or response cars cannot transport people. But they can ’stop the clock’ and meet government targets.
This is not a case of people’s lives could be at risk, they are and have been put a risk. Even when these incidents are highlight to management nothing is done.
I have the greatest respect for my colleagues who have put their jobs on the line to inform the people of Shropshire how we are being cheated out of emergency cover. Thank you and you have my full support.
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Well I Hope i dont need a ambulance in Oswestry, they will probably be covering Shrewsbury and telford. 1hr wait then!!!!!
Oh no they get Welsh ambulance service to lend a hand, it not like they are busy!
The Moral of the story is, the whistleblowers policy is not worth loo roll.
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It’s not just Shropshire. The ambulance service nationally is losing ambulances left, right and centre in order to bring in more cars. These cars may or may not have a paramedic on board. They may or may not be able to save a patient’s life single-handed. They WILL NOT be able to take anyone for further treatment (ie hospital – you’ll have to wait for an ambulance for that, manned, most likely, by ECAs – staff with basic first aid skills, but nowhere near the skill level of a paramedic or technician – but hey, they’re a LOT cheaper to employ!!), but THEY WILL stop the clock and hit the 8 minute target (all cheer – another government target reached, whilst the point is missed entirely!!)
And all the while, the money-grabbers at the top find even more ways to waste money, over-inflate the number of non-clinical staff whilst cutting the clinical budget at every turn and try to hoodwink the general public into thinking everything’s fine.
And when something DOES go wrong, then they simply sack one of the clinical staff most closely assocaited with the incident in order to fool the public into thinking they’re doing something to improve matters!!
Whistle Blowing??? It’s about time someone told the WHOLE TRUTH!!!
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Spot on post by Another Tech (above), shame this is the only way we can voice professional opinions. How can we make the public aware of this absolute farce when we are threatened with the sack by our so called management? I have a child to support and a mortgage to pay, as does the suspended Shrewsbury 3.
Huge respect for these staff for doing what they did. Your colleagues totally support you at what must be a terribly stressful time.
Cross boarder working is fine but not when it depletes such a vast, terribly under resourced rural area. It can often take crews over 30 minutes to get to you. If you doubt this- look at a map of Shropshire and plot where all of the stations are. Then ask yourself where the next station is if the crew from your nearest is already out (quite likely as the workload has increased significantly). You will be shocked.
Closing the Shrops Control room will have a significant impact on those Emergencies that Control have to talk crews in to- it could be your child that is unconscious or your wife lying dying in a wrecked car that the bystander is not sure of the exact location.
Did you know that WMAS are now employing Care Assistants who are not clinically trained- therefore vastly depleting the skill level of the crew who will attend your emergency? Yes, they work with a Technician or Paramedic but do just an advanced driving course and a week of basic first aid- yes- basic first aid. Again, imagine it’s your dying relative that needs intubating and thoracentesis to keep them alive. Just how many hands do you think one Paramedic has? Also, less then half of our staff are even Paramedics!
Reassuring isn’t it…!
I would dearly like to evidence the above but I have a rent to pay, as does Steve and the other two now suspended members of your dedicated, frontline ambulance staff who are vehemently opposed to this cost cutting closure.
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Unfortunately, nefarious practices like this are not confined to Shropshire Ambulance Service, neither are the practices of arguably incompetent managers bullying and intimidating their hard working employees.
The suspended staff should seek immediate legal advice and make reference to the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (they may wish to google this).
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It is great to see so many in support of these 3 suspended workers. Will it show the trust bosses that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated, that I seriously doubt. They are so used to all members of the community rolling over and showing their bellies whenever something like this occurs. It is time that this stopped and they realised that people still belieive in a NHS and believe that they have a say in it. I call for all persons fromm all walks of life to support these three brave and honest workers. Attend the meeting on the 28th of August at the Shirehall and lets show that the NHS is still a Public Service, and the Public want to see it run correctly.
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I am an ECA, Dave has been miss informed. Yes we do an advanced dtiving course PLUS a 4 week IHCD First Person on scene course. I agree we are being used as a cheap substitute for Technicians. I love the job and would love the opportunity to become a Technician and eventually a Para. I have worked with wonderful Paras and Techs who are dedicated and do a difficult job then get kicked in the teeth by Management. Does the Shropshire PCT, who fund Shropshire Ambulance know they are paying to cover work in the West Midlands. I have been one of those sent to West Brom to convey an urgent patient to Hospital. From the time of the call to us getting there was 3 hours, the patient WALKED to the Ambulance. The Patient could have been taken by the relative who said we could follow him to the Hospital and been back home in 3 hours. I only wish that all this support being given could change things but I have a feeling nothing will change until Mr Marsh goes.
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