Hi Jindabyne, you asked for my comments please note them below.
The Bain report was a politically motivated and now discredited report designed and commissioned solely to get across the government point of view in much the same way as Hutton and Butler. There was nothing in it that was new in the report as it was a pulling together of details and sound bites from previous reports on the fire service over the last twenty years such as Holroyd and “In the Line of Fire”. One mistake of the many that the FBU have committed was to have nothing to do with the report, a very foolish mistake, not that it would have altered its contents in any way.
With regards to paramedics I will not have a swipe at the role and capabilities of fellow professionals. Contrary to your posting I believe that a paramedic receives the same wages as a firefighter will once the new rates come into play. Their conditions of service and any changes that they aspire to is for them and their accredited representatives to attempt to achieve. I do not believe that it is responsible to try and drive wedges between personnel of the various agencies who are required to work together at the scene of an incident in order to render humanitarian services and restore normality.
We all in the emergency services are exposed to unpleasantness on a daily basis but in different ways. Firefighters on the scene of an incident are responsible for the safety of all persons within the inner cordon or hot zone and do not allow any other agency to enter. Except in extreme circumstance all casualties are removed from the inner cordon and taken to the outer cordon where they are handed over to the other agencies attending. This is the case whether it is an attendance in response to a fire, RTA, building collapse, terrorist action or whatever the likely scenario. The fire service is required to deal with the casualties at all times in the hazard zone so I think that we do know the stresses personal involvement can bring.
Given all that, I recognise that the ambulance service and police are required to handle all kinds of unpleasantness especially as you put it on a Friday and Saturday night. The effects of drinking, general lawlessness and anti-social behaviour affect us all in carrying out our duty and require a resolution which is again the responsibility of the government.
This lawlessness affects the fire service as well. Within my own brigade there have been 179 recorded acts of violence against fire crew this year ranging from verbal abuse to on 2 occasions firefighters being shot with air rifles. At every incident we attend, persons are involved in some way or another and even when we are rendering assistance, drink fuelled violence takes very careful handling using social skills to ensure peaceful resolution. It is worth remembering that 60% of fire deaths are linked to alcohol use.
In my Brigade 3 or 4 years ago we introduced extended first aid trauma management training to increase the skills of our personnel especially to respond to RTA’s and other non-fire related incidents involving trauma. This trauma management training was devised in co-operation with the consultant in emergency medicine in the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow. In addition to developing new skills in this area the Brigade invested heavily in procuring additional equipment needed to assist in the survival of casualties. All our personnel are trained in operating this equipment and the trauma management training is subject to on-going re-certification, verified by the Royal Infirmary personnel.
You might be interested to know as part of the modernisation agenda, because of the deficiencies in meeting attendance times by the ambulance service, it is proposed that the fire service co-respond or first respond to Category A medical emergencies. Category A emergencies are the most serious health emergencies where life is thought to be at risk. The first co-responding trial is proposed to start very soon in Tower Hamlets in London and will involve the fire brigade attending incidents where the ambulance service does not have the resources to attend. The training for the brigade personnel involved have been limited to being given a pamphlet to read and a video to watch so you can understand their concerns in being required to carry out such work. How the brigade will be able to handle seriously ill casualties with limited training and resources is very worrying for me.
I hope that this response goes some way to answering your query.