:00:09. > :00:13.Hello, tonight we are on patrol with the the volunteers providing
:00:14. > :00:18.vital support to the West Midlands Ambulance Service as heavy snow
:00:18. > :00:21.sparks a big interest -- increase in 999 call.
:00:21. > :00:25.There are an awful lot of very poorly people that we saw yesterday.
:00:25. > :00:29.It was taking an awfully long time to get to the incidence and to get
:00:29. > :00:33.back out on the road. We will find out how our region
:00:33. > :00:43.coped with it the deluge of snow that followed a Met Office warning.
:00:43. > :00:45.
:00:45. > :00:50.We were promised snow and we have This is the male health centre, the
:00:50. > :00:55.fictional home of the hugely popular BBC One daytime show
:00:55. > :01:00.Doctors. Every day over 800,000 people attend surgeries, more than
:01:00. > :01:04.200,000 a visit hospital. How safe are you on the wards? We have
:01:04. > :01:14.discovered that nearly half of all serious incidents in hospital
:01:14. > :01:14.
:01:14. > :01:17.involved a condition that is almost always preventable.
:01:17. > :01:20.This is obviously going back, just general family members and sisters
:01:20. > :01:24.and brothers. Some cars. He was really into his cars. Claire Cross,
:01:24. > :01:30.from Tewkesbury, loves talking about her first hero, her dad.
:01:30. > :01:35.was very quiet actually. Very home loving. But amongst the hundreds of
:01:35. > :01:40.photos, there is one that she can hardly bear to look at. He didn't
:01:40. > :01:43.really have a quality of life. I don't feel. He just sat in a chair
:01:43. > :01:50.watching television or sleeping and that was his life from that point
:01:50. > :01:56.on really. So what was it that robbed David Chalkley of his
:01:56. > :01:58.independence, forcing him to spend his final days in a nursing home?
:01:58. > :02:05.Alarmingly, it was something that happened to him in hospital,
:02:05. > :02:08.something that ensured he would never walk again. I feel that he's
:02:08. > :02:12.suffered needlessly. I feel that he could have possibly stayed at home
:02:12. > :02:18.a bit longer and enjoyed a bit more of family life and being around the
:02:18. > :02:28.surroundings that he loved and his garden. Instead of going off into a
:02:28. > :02:32.strange place and having to stay there until the end of his life.
:02:32. > :02:39.Two years on, Clare wants to know if what happened to her dad could
:02:39. > :02:46.have been avoided and if others are suffering as well. We offered to
:02:46. > :02:48.help. And we've discovered that each year
:02:48. > :02:50.there are thousands of similar incidents in hospitals across
:02:50. > :02:54.England, costing the health service billions. And they're almost always
:02:54. > :02:56.preventable. What am I talking about? Simple bed sores. The NHS
:02:56. > :03:01.insists hospitals record and investigate all incidents that
:03:01. > :03:05.unexpectedly cause death or severe harm. It calls them Serious
:03:05. > :03:10.Untoward Incidents. So under Freedom of Information laws, we
:03:10. > :03:17.asked to see last year's summary. It turns out there were almost
:03:17. > :03:21.12,000. They're broken down into more than 70 categories, like child
:03:21. > :03:24.deaths, surgical errors, and delayed diagnoses. But more than
:03:24. > :03:32.40% of all the serious incidents recorded at English hospitals last
:03:32. > :03:34.year involved severe bed sores. They're also known as pressure
:03:34. > :03:43.ulcers because they happen when pressure restricts blood supply to
:03:43. > :03:47.the skin. And they range from small sores to large open wounds. Their
:03:47. > :03:53.severity is graded from one to four. Most aren't suitable to show on
:03:53. > :03:56.this programme. And they can be lethal. It was a bed sore that
:03:56. > :04:01.claimed the life of paralysed actor Christopeher Reeve, a man who was
:04:01. > :04:05.for so long known simply as Superman. Perhaps what's most
:04:05. > :04:15.worrying about our research is that the NHS itself admits that in 95%
:04:15. > :04:17.
:04:17. > :04:21.of cases bed sores are completely So what's going on? Why are
:04:21. > :04:24.thousands of people suffering unnecessarily? Could it be
:04:24. > :04:32.something to do with the standard of nursing in our hospitals? We
:04:32. > :04:35.asked the Royal College of Nursing. Well, I put it down to a lack of
:04:35. > :04:38.staff actually. If we think of the complex needs of some of these
:04:38. > :04:41.patients we may need two or in fact three nurses to deliver appropriate
:04:41. > :04:45.care to one patient. So for example, turning someone who is obese would
:04:45. > :04:49.take more than one nurse and if you've got four nurses who are on
:04:49. > :04:52.duty at one time on a ward of say 36 patients, to take three nurses
:04:52. > :05:02.off to be able to turn one patient on a regular basis, you know, takes
:05:02. > :05:03.
:05:03. > :05:05.time. So is it simply down to a lack of nurses? Well, the
:05:05. > :05:08.Department of Health told us nursing ratios are down to
:05:08. > :05:11.individual hospitals. So we had a look at the worst offender. Last
:05:11. > :05:15.year 192 severe bed sores were recorded under the care of Dudley
:05:15. > :05:20.Group NHS Trust, more than any other in England. Half occurred
:05:20. > :05:28.here at Russells Hall Hospital and half in the community. So I've come
:05:28. > :05:31.to ask the woman in charge why. The latest figures for serious untoward
:05:31. > :05:34.incidents, the number of bed sores recorded at hospitals, your
:05:34. > :05:37.hospital had the highest number. Is that down to not enough nurses?
:05:37. > :05:39.What's the reason? No, absolutely not. As an organisation we have
:05:39. > :05:41.followed the guidance from the National Patient Safety Agency
:05:41. > :05:44.which says that high recording levels of incidents throughout
:05:44. > :05:47.hospitals actually tends to be indicative of a high level of
:05:47. > :05:56.patient safety culture, of openness, of an honest culture of where
:05:56. > :06:00.people report and then learn from it. So are you saying that other
:06:00. > :06:04.hospitals aren't doing that? Well, I can't speak for other hospitals
:06:04. > :06:06.but what I can speak for is Dudley Group and that we have a system of
:06:06. > :06:09.recording and capturing pressure sores throughout the hospital which
:06:09. > :06:14.is extremely rigorous and not only do we capture them from within the
:06:14. > :06:16.hospital itself but also those that are prevalent in the community.
:06:16. > :06:19.you've always been so rigorous, though, at recording and reporting
:06:19. > :06:22.these you would have known that there was a problem. Why didn't you
:06:22. > :06:25.do something about it sooner? I think the whole NHS has
:06:25. > :06:27.acknowledged that there's been a problem with pressures sores.
:06:27. > :06:30.That's why it's been a national priority. And we, as an
:06:30. > :06:33.organisation, have acknowledged it's been a problem so we started
:06:33. > :06:35.the initiatives that we've been running over the last two years.
:06:35. > :06:41.That included this awareness campaign in which managers showed
:06:42. > :06:51.off parts of the body prone to bed sores. And the hospital says the
:06:52. > :06:54.
:06:54. > :06:59.number of cases has now started to come down. It develops under the
:06:59. > :07:01.skin. If it is not treated it can quickly become so via... But it's
:07:01. > :07:04.not just Dudley Group NHS Trust that believes better awareness and
:07:04. > :07:14.training is the answer. This information video has gone out to
:07:14. > :07:15.
:07:15. > :07:24.frontline staff across the Midlands. There are simple steps you can take
:07:24. > :07:33.to prevent pressure ulcers. education the only solution or so
:07:33. > :07:36.do our hospitals be doing even more? Well, there was one in the
:07:36. > :07:39.West Midlands that last year didn't record any severe bed sores at all.
:07:39. > :07:49.It was this one, the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in
:07:49. > :07:50.
:07:50. > :07:53.Oswestry. And I'm here to discover its secret. How are you? We have
:07:53. > :07:56.just turned you so we will check your dressings... Matron Julie
:07:56. > :07:59.Roberts has agreed to share that secret. And I'm shocked when I
:07:59. > :08:06.realise this is it, nurses simply turn patients and check their skin
:08:06. > :08:09.every couple of hours. So this is something that's really, really
:08:09. > :08:12.basic in preventing these pressure sores? It is. Yeah. We assess all
:08:12. > :08:14.our patients on admission. And obviously we look at their age,
:08:14. > :08:18.their skin integrity, any medication that they're on, what
:08:18. > :08:23.their mobility is like. And that really makes a difference to
:08:23. > :08:30.preventing these sores? As well as physically turning them. You have
:08:30. > :08:34.to continually turn them. You and your team of nurses are spending a
:08:34. > :08:37.lot of time turning patients aren't you? We are but we do it from the
:08:37. > :08:40.top to the bottom. And fortunately a lot of our patients now are quite
:08:40. > :08:43.independent and mobile very, very quickly after surgery because we do
:08:43. > :08:47.get them up on the day of surgery. So we promote independence very
:08:47. > :08:50.quickly. So there isn't as many as you'd think. I'll turn you over to
:08:50. > :08:52.your left hand side... It's perhaps unfair, though, to compare this
:08:52. > :08:55.specialist orthopaedic trust with general city hospitals which must
:08:55. > :08:57.cater for all types of complex conditions. Here they're able to
:08:57. > :09:04.invest in expensive specialist equipment like this mechanical
:09:04. > :09:09.turning bed and these motorised foot pumps. But perhaps we can
:09:09. > :09:12.learn from the ethos here. We're quite old-fashioned. I remember
:09:12. > :09:16.when I first started here 25 years ago that I was told by my
:09:16. > :09:19.consultant here, patients do not get pressure sores and if they do I
:09:19. > :09:28.will chop your hands and head off, because it was so important that
:09:28. > :09:31.that didn't happen. And that is what I try to instill in all the
:09:31. > :09:41.training in all the nurses on this specific unit and within this
:09:41. > :09:48.hospital. Back in Tewkesbury I tell Claire what we've learnt.
:09:48. > :09:55.We found that over 40% of serious incidents of bed sores -- of bed
:09:55. > :09:57.sores. And show her some of the footage from Oswestry. They're
:09:57. > :10:01.checking the skin underneath the hills that they're not red. That's
:10:01. > :10:04.something that Dad could have probably done with. Now obviously
:10:04. > :10:07.we've only just shown you the numbers and that short film. As
:10:07. > :10:11.it's all sinking in, what's your reaction? I'm quite cross now. I
:10:11. > :10:14.didn't realise the numbers were so high. And it just makes me want to
:10:14. > :10:22.ask the question why hospitals such as Oswestry can't pass on their
:10:22. > :10:27.good practice and their training to other hospitals. Why can one
:10:27. > :10:31.hospital do it and other hospitals can't? But the hospital where
:10:31. > :10:34.Claire's dad got his bed sores has been in touch. The Alexandra
:10:34. > :10:37.Hospital in Redditch claims new practices brought in last year have
:10:37. > :10:39.helped bring about a significant reduction in the incidence of
:10:39. > :10:49.pressure ulcers and Claire has accepted an invitation to see the
:10:49. > :10:52.
:10:52. > :10:57.changes for herself. Well, if they can improve, it is
:10:57. > :10:59.great, they are going in the right direction. There obviously is room
:10:59. > :11:07.for improvement on some hospitals and the sooner it happens the
:11:07. > :11:15.better really. So, what is your verdict on the
:11:15. > :11:21.NHS? You can talk to was right now on Twitter, using the hash tag
:11:21. > :11:26.inside out. You can also contact me on e-mail.
:11:26. > :11:30.Still to come tonight: Under a blanket of snow, how Red Cross
:11:30. > :11:34.volunteers the road to the rescue. They are very appreciative of the
:11:34. > :11:38.sport we can -- support we can provide and having a good
:11:38. > :11:43.communication link is essential. But next, the NHS is about to
:11:43. > :11:51.undergo its biggest ever shake-up. What does this mean for you and me
:11:51. > :11:54.and our families? At the doctor and This is lovely, madam, because this
:11:54. > :11:58.inhaler would actually go with your coat. And a free examination. Do
:11:58. > :12:03.you want to come here and cough, sir? I can give you those half
:12:03. > :12:07.price. Plus something for your water retention. I'm a GP. And
:12:07. > :12:10.today I'm taking healthcare into the community, where it's needed.
:12:11. > :12:16.All the sample bottles you could ever need and I'll throw in a
:12:16. > :12:19.crutch. It's all free. It's all paid for. This is what the biggest
:12:19. > :12:22.shake-up in the history of the NHS is all about - giving local doctors,
:12:22. > :12:28.nurses and patients the chance to call the shots and shop around for
:12:28. > :12:30.the best care. At least that's the Government's plan. But many doctors
:12:30. > :12:39.think the reforms are untested, expensive and over-complicated - a
:12:39. > :12:42.view I shared with the former health secretary Andrew Lansley.
:12:42. > :12:45.The difficulty with this is that it's 353 pages of wonk. It's
:12:45. > :12:51.absolutely impossible to understand it. I choose my words carefully. It
:12:51. > :12:54.is unreadable. What did you actually say? It's wonk. But I've
:12:54. > :12:57.been wading through the jargon, and it's clear the reforms will affect
:12:57. > :13:00.us all. It's vital we put politics aside and try to understand exactly
:13:00. > :13:06.what they'll mean for patients. Until now the NHS has been like a
:13:06. > :13:10.big supermarket chain that only sells its own brands. It's a one
:13:10. > :13:13.stop shop where all the tricky decisions are made for you. In
:13:13. > :13:22.theory, you should get the same high quality care whether you live
:13:22. > :13:24.in Scunthorpe or Southend. But like any monopoly, it's far from perfect.
:13:24. > :13:26.The Government's bringing in the market place model instead -
:13:26. > :13:34.introducing more choice and competition, and putting GPs in
:13:34. > :13:37.charge instead of civil servants. But will it work?
:13:37. > :13:42.So if I just check your eyes there... I can confirm you have two
:13:42. > :13:45.eyes. We're doing two X-rays for the price of one. And I can throw
:13:45. > :13:47.in a free brain scan if you like. One change we're told patients
:13:48. > :13:50.should notice is care much closer to home.
:13:50. > :13:55.Hospitals and GPs will have more freedom to bring in innovative
:13:55. > :13:59.ideas. Technology might monitor your health at home and routine
:13:59. > :14:02.surgery could be done at high street clinics. Hospitals in
:14:02. > :14:07.Gloucestershire have already teamed up with a charity to send this
:14:07. > :14:13.mobile chemotherapy unit into rural communities. For cancer patients
:14:13. > :14:21.like Graham Freeman, it's a lifeline. The concept is great,
:14:21. > :14:26.moving the treatment to the person. Because it is a bit of a trauma,
:14:26. > :14:32.suffering from the chemotherapy and the travelling. Bringing the
:14:32. > :14:42.treatment closer to the person is a lot better. You do feel a little
:14:42. > :14:43.
:14:43. > :14:48.bit better. Everything is positive. It is one of the few positives
:14:48. > :14:51.since I have found out about cancer. It is one of the positive things we
:14:51. > :14:55.have got. But could this shift towards more localised care mean
:14:55. > :14:57.hospitals will have to close? To find out I've come to London, to
:14:57. > :15:04.one of the world's most respected independent think tanks on health
:15:04. > :15:07.policy - the King's Fund. I don't think we'll see many hospitals
:15:07. > :15:09.closing as a result of care coming closer to home. It will mean
:15:09. > :15:15.hospitals changing their roles, perhaps fewer A&E departments,
:15:15. > :15:18.fewer maternity services provided in existing hospitals. But that
:15:18. > :15:20.could be to the benefit of patients if we're able to plan that in the
:15:20. > :15:27.appropriate way and get better outcomes by concentrating those
:15:27. > :15:32.services in fewer hospitals. might not be keen though, if it's
:15:32. > :15:38.your A&E that's closing. The second thing patients should notice is
:15:38. > :15:41.more choice. Three tomatoes for �1! Anybody?
:15:41. > :15:45.Three inhalers for the price of two. Come and get them! Two caulies,
:15:45. > :15:48.�1.50 over there! We've got a separate queue here for six
:15:48. > :15:51.symptoms or less. Competition in the NHS isn't new, but the reforms
:15:51. > :15:59.step it up a notch. The NHS will become a marketplace,
:15:59. > :16:02.with private companies competing with the NHS for business. So when
:16:02. > :16:10.your GP says you need a scan, your options may look less like this,
:16:10. > :16:15.and more like this. But it should be quality, not price, that will
:16:15. > :16:17.decide which are allowed to offer care. It's already happening here
:16:17. > :16:25.on the high street, where Specsavers are treating NHS
:16:25. > :16:29.patients in 218 of its hearing centres. When I came to Specsavers,
:16:29. > :16:33.they do private and NHS, which I find is better than going to the
:16:33. > :16:42.hospital. You know you go to the hospital, there's a lot of
:16:42. > :16:48.travelling and I don't think you get such a personal attention. So
:16:48. > :16:51.this is much, much better. When you press the button in, you'll hear
:16:51. > :16:54.two beeps which will allow you to use the telephone then. The plan is
:16:54. > :16:57.for patients like Doreen to choose their provider by looking at new
:16:57. > :16:59.performance league tables. But companies must play by the rules
:16:59. > :17:03.and can't encourage NHS patients to go private. Ultimately, Specsavers
:17:03. > :17:07.want to protect the NHS work that we've managed to gain here and we
:17:07. > :17:11.don't want to do anything to try and jeopardise that. We're not
:17:11. > :17:17.going to try and sell a hearing aid, upsell a patient at all during that
:17:17. > :17:20.time. More competition could drive up standards and lower costs. But
:17:20. > :17:25.if profits slip, companies could pull out or even go under, leaving
:17:25. > :17:28.patients in the lurch. Remember the collapse of Northern Rock? Imagine
:17:28. > :17:35.if its customers had been queuing not for their life savings but for
:17:35. > :17:38.life-saving surgery. If there is going to be a bigger role for
:17:38. > :17:40.private companies in delivering care to patients, then there is
:17:40. > :17:43.always a possibility, however remote, that that company will not
:17:43. > :17:46.be successful, that we will see something like Northern Rock in
:17:46. > :17:48.healthcare. The Government's anticipating that. It's putting in
:17:48. > :17:51.place what's called a "failure regime" so that the regulator can
:17:51. > :18:01.intervene and ensure continuity of services even if the organisations
:18:01. > :18:04.are not providing care to the right standard. The third thing patients
:18:04. > :18:08.may notice is a shift in their relationship with their GP. So if I
:18:08. > :18:10.said, "Trust me, I know the best place to go to get your heart
:18:10. > :18:17.surgery." Would you say, "Yeah, you're the doctor. Dr Phil, you
:18:17. > :18:20.look like a ginger George Clooney. I love, I trust you."?
:18:20. > :18:26.Since the birth of the NHS, doctors have taken the trust of patients
:18:26. > :18:29.for granted. But as GPs offer more and more treatments, they could
:18:29. > :18:32.find themselves referring patients to their own services. Add private
:18:32. > :18:39.companies into the mix and there's real scope for a conflict of
:18:39. > :18:43.interest. So just open really wide. Say "ahh." Ahh. That's great, thank
:18:43. > :18:46.you. But should we really be worried? In Bath, Jasmine Bishop is
:18:47. > :18:49.seeing a GP on the NHS. But believe it or not, he actually works for
:18:49. > :18:54.Virgin. Yup - they of planes, trains and super-fast broadband
:18:54. > :19:01.fame also run this walk-in centre, along with 170 other NHS services...
:19:01. > :19:04.Although you wouldn't know it from the branding. As Virgin takes over
:19:04. > :19:07.more of the NHS, what's to stop you referring patients on to another
:19:07. > :19:10.Virgin service to make money for the company, rather than in the
:19:10. > :19:13.best interests of the patient? of our GPs, like any GP in the
:19:13. > :19:20.country, have to offer patients a choice when they're being referred
:19:20. > :19:24.for another service. So in the end, it's down to the patient to choose
:19:24. > :19:27.where they go. And of course, GPs and other clinical staff have a
:19:27. > :19:31.professional responsibility too to make sure that they're finding the
:19:31. > :19:37.best care for their patients. That doesn't differ because those GPs
:19:37. > :19:40.are employed by us. And you have to ask if patients really mind who
:19:40. > :19:44.provides their care. Did you know that this health
:19:44. > :19:47.centre was run by Virgin? No. it make any difference to you as a
:19:47. > :19:53.patient whether it's run by an ordinary NHS GP or a private
:19:53. > :19:56.company? No. So all that matters to you is what? What do you care about
:19:56. > :19:59.in your treatment? That I get the best treatment I possibly can get
:19:59. > :20:02.really. Which of these sample bottles would
:20:02. > :20:05.you like, madam? We've got three on choice today.
:20:05. > :20:10.The bottom line is that if you have a good idea to improve your care,
:20:10. > :20:14.tell your GP. If he or she can make it happen, we know the reforms are
:20:14. > :20:20.working. It's been a huge upheaval just to get the NHS to listen to
:20:20. > :20:23.patients. And I hope for all our sakes it works. I can't lug all
:20:23. > :20:33.this back again. Come on, it's got to go today. Last
:20:33. > :20:36.
:20:36. > :20:39.chance! You are watching Inside out here in
:20:39. > :20:44.the West Midlands. The Met Office did warn it is going to snow and it
:20:44. > :20:53.has cost chaos. 999 services were at full stretch but they were able
:20:53. > :20:57.to call on the vital support of some volunteers.
:20:57. > :21:02.For the last four days, snow and freezing temperatures have gripped
:21:02. > :21:06.in the West Midlands. We still have a Met Office amber warning in place,
:21:06. > :21:10.the second highest and it is staying right the way through to
:21:10. > :21:15.tonight. The snow is staying with us. If snow made driving
:21:15. > :21:20.difficult... This is the worst I have known it for a few years, to
:21:20. > :21:24.be honest. This is the first time we have had to turn around and come
:21:24. > :21:28.back. Emergency services struggled to reach patients in need but there
:21:28. > :21:32.is help at hand. Hundreds of volunteers turned out to exist.
:21:32. > :21:37.Meet one of them, Adrian, a former teacher who has been volunteering
:21:37. > :21:43.for the Red Cross since he was a child. Today he is operational with
:21:43. > :21:45.the 4x4 Red Cross ambulance. I have West Midlands and villains service
:21:45. > :21:49.when the weather gets extreme and I am joining them. Talk me through
:21:49. > :21:54.which you do at the beginning of a shift. There are two main things we
:21:54. > :21:57.like to do when we are setting up the ambulance. One of which is to
:21:57. > :22:02.check the roadworthiness of the vehicle, the lights and the engine,
:22:02. > :22:08.the tyres and bodywork. The next thing is to check the integrity of
:22:08. > :22:14.the vehicle in terms of the supplies. It is quite a long shift
:22:14. > :22:17.and we need to know we have got the right amount of equipment. It is
:22:17. > :22:21.the special Land Rover which makes the team so useful when 10
:22:21. > :22:27.centimetres of snow has fallen. are very lucky to have his vehicle.
:22:27. > :22:33.It is worth its weight in gold, with certainly snow responses and
:22:33. > :22:40.also inaccessible places due to flooding, or also muddied, things
:22:40. > :22:45.like music festivals in the summer. It is useful in any kind of weather,
:22:45. > :22:50.we would be utilised to get too inaccessible places. Either a very
:22:50. > :22:54.rural locations or perhaps places hit hard by the snow and have lots
:22:54. > :23:04.of hills. I will let you get on with your prep because I know you
:23:04. > :23:07.
:23:08. > :23:15.have to sign on at the beginning of the shift. Thank you.
:23:15. > :23:19.Signing on for a shift with the today, over. Now, the team are
:23:19. > :23:24.signed on. Adrian just needs to check one last thing. Can I have
:23:24. > :23:27.clarified with regards to transfer a fusion of patience, are all
:23:27. > :23:33.patients when being transported to hospital going Asprey yesterday,
:23:34. > :23:37.over? The weather meant the roads were blocked yesterday so every
:23:37. > :23:45.patient they picked up had to be blue lighted to hospital through
:23:45. > :23:48.the traffic. We had a lot of poorly people yesterday and the problem
:23:48. > :23:54.was that it was taking an awfully long time not only to get two
:23:54. > :23:58.incidents but to get back out on the road. To assist with getting
:23:58. > :24:06.patients into care and to get us back onto the road, we were asked
:24:06. > :24:11.to do that. So it is just a waiting game? I am afraid so, yes. It is
:24:11. > :24:17.one of those things, it can happen at any moment. On Friday, they had
:24:17. > :24:21.six jobs in six hours and they are expecting another busy day. Whilst
:24:21. > :24:28.Adrian and the other volunteers wait at kiss, many are out enjoying
:24:28. > :24:38.the snow that has covered the West Midlands. -- which at the base. A
:24:38. > :24:46.
:24:46. > :24:51.call has, in. -- has come in. Roger, I do, all received. Lovely, cheers,
:24:51. > :24:56.thank you. You have got to get moving, but what is happening?
:24:56. > :25:01.are going to a patient in Walsall assessed by their GP. It is
:25:01. > :25:05.recommended due to a systemic problem with their joints, and also
:25:05. > :25:13.be a pig feed that they have into their stomach, they need to go into
:25:13. > :25:19.hospital. -- also a feat that they have into her stomach.
:25:19. > :25:25.The snow eased off, so getting to the patient is quick. It is a vital
:25:25. > :25:32.piece of equipment for us and we operate as a resource for the
:25:32. > :25:39.ambulance service. We can get to places that a land ambulance would
:25:39. > :25:42.struggle or possibly even be dangerous for it to go.
:25:42. > :25:48.We will just take that and to check on her.
:25:48. > :25:52.What is the first thing you will do? We will have a chat. This is
:25:52. > :25:57.residential accommodation. We would chat with the staff and patient and
:25:57. > :26:07.find out what has been happening, how they are feeling, what has been
:26:07. > :26:08.
:26:08. > :26:13.going on the last couple of days. This is a line in it and it keeps
:26:13. > :26:21.getting moved. Kathleen has only just come out of hospital but is
:26:21. > :26:28.still in pain and her GP wants her to be readmitted. What is your
:26:28. > :26:34.assessment? This lady has had recent surgery and has been
:26:34. > :26:38.receiving antibiotics at home. The main problem for her is that the
:26:38. > :26:43.antibiotics are unable to get into her system because there is a
:26:43. > :26:47.blockage in the tubing she has been set up with. It is important post
:26:47. > :26:51.operatively to receive those drugs on a regular basis so we need to
:26:51. > :26:57.take her to hospital so it can be rectified -- rectified and the
:26:57. > :27:01.medication process can start to harbour with recovery. With their
:27:01. > :27:08.elderly patient on the ambulance, the snow does not stop them getting
:27:08. > :27:15.her into Walsall Manor Hospital. Kathleen has had knee surgery and
:27:15. > :27:21.she needs antibiotics. She had was seen by the community nurses
:27:21. > :27:27.morning and her line is blocked. Hopefully they will be able to give
:27:27. > :27:31.her the antibiotics that she needs in hospital to take the pain away.
:27:31. > :27:37.With this job done, it is back to base with the team, but the weather
:27:37. > :27:42.is still threatening. It may get a lot I see you later on with the
:27:42. > :27:51.prediction of more snow. -- a lot I see her. It could become more
:27:51. > :27:55.treacherous. You might get a cup of tea and! Are if you are lucky.
:27:55. > :27:59.Coming along makes a huge difference, doesn't it? We are very
:27:59. > :28:02.lucky to have as they go and it really comes into its own in bad
:28:02. > :28:06.weather. Certainly with the snow that we have now, I cannot see it
:28:06. > :28:16.not been used over the next two days. I will let you get back and
:28:16. > :28:16.
:28:16. > :28:23.get ready for the next job. Thank They at his it. Do not forget you
:28:23. > :28:28.can find more information on our Facebook page. With more of this
:28:28. > :28:34.forecast over the next few days, stay tuned to your local BBC radio
:28:34. > :28:39.station. From snowing Birmingham, good night.