How do I become a Paramedic?

Comments and challenges welcome from anybody. Posting as a paramedic who has worked incidents with SAR but never had much insight into their operations.

For context, the CQC have announced there will be a requirement for event medical provision to be registered with an organisational fee of £1000. My understanding is that any organisation providing more than "basic" first aid will be expected to pay this fee.

Numerous search and rescue/mountain rescue charities have recently hit the headlines claiming this threatens their existence. Their main income streams are through event cover, and I have seen various outlets reporting that this £1000 fee will make it impossible for them to operate.

£1000 is not a vast amount of money. It is not nothing, but in terms of organisational costing, especially with a flashy charity mission like SAR that people love to donate to, I'm surprised that this is seemingly existential to so many of these groups. They seem to have plenty of good quality kit and tech systems which don't appear cheap.

The sceptic in me is wondering if this is a veiled attempt to direct public pressure against CQC regulation of SAR groups because they don't want a foot in the door to the level of scrutiny of their wider activity that potentially comes with being CQC registered.

Do I have the complete wrong idea about this?

Rant …

My service has recently run a survey asking all patient-facing staff to comment on and help understand the length of a job cycle and where delays are encountered. Sadly, only about 10% of staff replied.

We’re very quick to say “nobody asked me” when changes are made, but why seemingly when we are asked, people don’t engage?

We’re our own worst enemies.

Rant over …

Hi, I'm currently working towards joining the ambulance service, however recently have also been having on and off issues with my mental health , nothing life threatening or anything the affects my ability to work. I was put on antidepressants in 2021 however came off them when my state improved soon after, but am considering looking to see if I can be put back on them, if I'm looking to apply to join the ambulance service will something like this, such as taking antidepressants, disqualify me at all?

Hiya everyone! I’m in the market for getting some pants that are actually decent in the summer instead of the trust ones. I don’t mind most of the trust issued stuff, just that these trousers are awful in summer. i find myself overheating in them constantly, and they’re just not comfortable at all.

i’m looking for a women’s fitting trousers, that’s lightweight and still has a decent level of storage. I usually have my steth in my pocket, sometimes a standard pair of tough cuts, my phone and a card holder for my debit card etc. I don’t need anything special for my belt, i only have a radio clip for it and that’s it. i put the keys for the bus and my id on my belt hoops and that’s it.

i’ve seen the Keela HART scuffers recommended quite a bit, however they are quite expensive. i don’t mind forking out a little bit, because i don’t buy anything else for work. does anyone have any experiences with these, and even better if it’s the women’s fit. Does anyone also have any other recommendations for women’s lightweight trousers?

Hello just trying to get end of shift tasking procedure/policy for each ambulance service in the UK. I’m a union rep trying to get each policy so can then discuss with management with options to try and reduce late finishes.

Morning/evening/happy QUIET shift to you all.

I came off a shift with another para yesterday, and wanted your opinions. I can be pretty stubborn sometimes, but don’t think I am being in this case.

My crewmate made a comment and we got into a bit of a disagreement about how I assessed capacity/laid out the options for a patient.

Long story short, 30s male with rt sided diaphragm/chest pain. Recent non-productive cough due to flair up of hayfever after holiday to countryside.

Obs and ECG NAD
Pain worse on movement and deep inhalation. Worse on palpation of intercostal muscles.Non radiating. Sharp. No other sx.

Sounds very MSK.
Personally with the hx I’m fairly confident to go down that route, but my crewmate mentioned a hospital trip so I did the obligatory. Obviously I’ve considered differentials, risks, chance of this actually occurring (epidemiology if you’re feeling posh tonight).

I went down the route of
• Nothing suggesting acute ACS on ECG, OBS or HX
• Advised two routes: attend ED or self care.
• Advised that whilst sounds very MSK can’t definitively say not something sinister - always the chance of misinterpreting, missing something, or being too early to see anything - but HxPC and assessments suggests not.
• Safest option to near enough rule out is to attend ed for bloods/assessment which might be repeat might be one set dependent on their risk assessment.
• Advised sounds very muscular, my imp, why that was, and that he could remain at home with self care advice. Oral analgesia etc. This might be the more ideal option for the pt, but obviously it comes with accepting some risk
• Mentioned worst case scenarios.

Ultimately pt refused, wanted to remain at home, understood the risk, agreed with my imp, was WAG’d and left happy to his own devices.

My crewmate got funny and was of the opinion that we should be suggesting hospital only and not give the choice unless they’ve refused.

My opinion is that pt gets to make their own choice about care, and we’re here to assess and advise. We give them the options, they make the choice. Giving them only one option until they refuse is shit practice. As long as they’re informed and make that decision themselves (ie I’m not talking them into a refusal), that’s their choice to do so.

Just wondering your thoughts. I get the CARE/CYA stance but I feel like I’m doing a disservice then (esp when I would’ve discharged off my own back after discussing imp/WAG/risk).

Thoughts??

This sickens me, why are we expected to put our lives in danger for the courts and judges to do absolutely nothing about it.

The 49-year-old was sentenced to 16 months in prison during a hearing earlier, after previously pleading guilty to assaulting an emergency worker and threatening with an offensive weapon. Chandler will serve at least 40% of his sentence, amounting to more than six months.

6 freaking months... Disgusting.

I submitted a complaint to London Ambulance Service as they wouldn’t send an ambulance for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy which I ended up having emergency surgery for that same day.

Their initial response said that they would respond within five weeks, or contact me to let me know if they required longer for their investigations.

I hadn’t heard anything after that time so I called the number in their response, and it always rings out and never gets answered. I also sent an email.

Can anyone tell me how I can get a response to my complaint? A ruptured ectopic pregnancy can be life-threatening so they need to review their despatch processes for these calls.

r/ParamedicsUK Job of the Week

Hey there, another 7 days have passed! How's your week going? We hope it’s been a good one!

Have you attended any funny, interesting, odd, or weird jobs this week?
Tell us how you tackled them.

Have you learned something new along the way?
Share your newfound knowledge.

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Drop a link below.

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I find the HCPC a pain in the A****. The FTP complaints take an abysmally long time to run their course, many over two years in length just to be dismissed. Also, the cost, we literally pay to work. An absolutely poor system. If it were all in one place, like the NMC (which has it's failings ik)... Thoughts?

Hi all

Keen to hear your thoughts.

I've been a nurse nearly 18 years. Ex military,.done lots of stuff. Across lots of specialities. I have an MSc in ACP and currently work in primary and urgent care. I also have the DIMC RCSED. I've worked in event medicine. I've done aeromedical.evacution on fixed wing airframes, including level 3 retrieval. ALS and PHEC instructor.

But none of this means I can do PHEM. It's been a battle for most of my career. So I thought sod it,.ill do the MSc paramedic course then I can finally do HEMS / PHEM. I don't live in an area with a BASICS scheme and the ones close by don't use non doctors.

Waste of money?

I think I'm looking for a unicorn here.

I'm really eager to start progressing my career but I'm feeling stagnated by the fact I can only commit to part time hours for the next few years.

I'm an experienced BSc paramedic but have no further training/education. I'd love to move to more primary/urgent care and seriously considering a move towards ACP. My issue is - every role that will assist with this progression is full time, which is understandable really.

Has anyone managed to develop their career whilst being part time? Or will I have to fund everything myself and/or wait until I can do full time (which to be honest, might be never)

Hi,

New to the roads PTS / ACA here!

I’ve been on the roads for 3 weeks now and on our crew we do one drives for half the shift then the other takes over, so it’s about 5-6 hours of driving a day.

After about 4/5 hours of driving I’ve noticed my left knee starts to ache prolly cus of all the clutch movement.

Has anyone had this issue and what can you advise to help with it ? My concern is I have some single crew shifts coming up so I’ll be driving all day.

Thanks!

Thought I'd share this here and see what you all think.

Hey everyone!

I’m currently in my first year of paramedicine in Australia and am interested in going over to London when I finish to do their newly qualified paramedic program.

I’ve heard they’ve stopped all hiring right now as there’s too many paramedics but I was wondering if anyone knows anything about what it is like to work for LAS? Work-life balance, pay etc.

I’ve heard some horror stories of people from Aus getting ready to work over there then their contracts being cancelled, but I’m hoping that maybe in two years they might start hiring again.

Thanks!

p.s. Or if anyone has any info for other cities in the UK (Manchester, Liverpool etc.) I’d also be interested!!

So had an isolated seizure out of the blue in april.

All bloods/vbg/ct head came back normal ( mild global t wave inversion on ecg which resolved).

Still awaiting nhs neuro follow up ( current wait is 4.5 months so September by the time im seen).

Obviously not driven since then and sent all the forms to dvla.

There is really mixed info online about when i can reapply for both car and C1.

The D2/D4 forms are about clear as mud.

Ill apply for car at 6 months as this is the absolute minimum the DVLA note ( this is based on statistical probability of another).

I seem to able to reapply for C1 ones my car licence is back but some information on gov.uk suggests I can't drive a truck for 5 yrs!!!

Seems a bit harsh if this is proven as isolated/ no cause/ no epilepsy ( yes aware of the risks).

I was hoping any poor souls on here may have gone through anything similar and can give me any advice please?

Thank you

Hi!!

I’m currently a paramedic in the north and have been for almost 4 years. I’m just curious about up-skilling to ACP and how it works? It’s not something I’d want to do for at least another year or 2 anyway but some sort of up-skilling has started to cross my mind.

If anyone has any knowledge about this I’d be super keen to hear it!

On the rare occasion I've been the one calling an ambulance, there were a lot more specific questions asked, even when one time it did result in a call back from a clinician, however i imagine its different between trusts? Or if the over all script changes depending on pressures?

Any recommendations for companies to order paramedic drugs from when working privately? Also if anyone has a relatively recent price list that would also be amazing! Thanks.

r/ParamedicsUK Job of the Week

Hey there, another 7 days have passed! How's your week going? We hope it’s been a good one!

Have you attended any funny, interesting, odd, or weird jobs this week?
Tell us how you tackled them.

Have you learned something new along the way?
Share your newfound knowledge.

Have you stumbled upon any intriguing pieces of CPD you could dole out?
Drop a link below.

We’d love to hear about it, but please remember Rule 4: “No patient or case-identifiable information.”

I just been accepted to start paramedic science in September, I just wondering what do I need to go before starting, any advice would be appreciated