Comments on: Hands Tied

By: Sergeant Simon

Sergeant Simon — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:01:56 +0000

Is true here too…. it is simply a suing avoidance policy of as the legal powers that be have decreed that ambulance staff, unlike the police and fire brigade, do not have a legal power to break into a property in order to save life or limb. So they can break in, in as much as anyone can, but they run the chance of doing so illegally and their employers wont back them up if the “saved” person decides he’d like some money out of them.

By: 200

200 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:41:44 +0000

Andrew, thanks for that, a technical edit to spare further grammatical embarrassment has taken place!

By: Stan Still

Stan Still — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:31:20 +0000

Technically, someone who causes damage to property without the consent of the owner could be charged with causing criminal damage under the 1971 act. However, there is a specific defence for a person who causes damage in the reasonable belief that the owner of the property would have consented to the damage had they known the circumstances.

I’ve known ambulance staff force entry to houses. I’ve never known any occupants to make a complaint and I’ve never considered it necessary to arrest an ambulance person for damage in these situations.

Common sense can and should prevail – not policy!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:27:48 +0000

“…….there are occasions when I can’t even get a free unit to take an immediate report of a 23-year-old naked blond running up the High Street shouting ‘take me, take me’……..”

I’m not surprised. A blond is a male…. a female is called a BLONDE !

That small difference of one letter may well make several units suddenly “free” ……

By: Ambulance Man

Ambulance Man — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:51:16 +0000

We are as allowed to break into a property as much as the next door neighbour, but most trusts have it as policy that we shouldn’t do it. You would like to think that this wouldn’t be a problem if you saved a persons life, but then this is a service where you can reach a patient in 7 minutes and fail to save them, but it is recorded as a success – get there in 9 minutes and save them it is a failure; go figure!!

By: annette

annette — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:42:17 +0000

I was surprised about this and checked it out, and NO they are not allowed to break into someones house even when it’s an emergency. Only the police can do this.
Hence the call to you,(when your not chasing blondes!)