Wednesday 15 April 2015

'Flu vaccinations were

the priority of the day for us yesterday.
I had made the appointment last week and the Senior Cat and I went to see our GP yesterday. She was, miracle of miracles, running almost to time and saw both of us together.
I don't know how our GP does it but she is usually cheerful. I try not to prowl into her room too often and perhaps that helps. The Senior Cat is there more often but they get on very well together. She is a good friend of Middle Cat.
The clinic we attend is some distance away. There is another practice we could attend on the way but we followed two doctors who moved their practice to the clinic.
I pedal past the other clinic to come home. There was an ambulance outside yesterday. It had pulled up in the only available space - across two parked cars. The ambulance officers were trying to subdue a patient and get him into the ambulance. It was taking the strength of both of them to try and stop him from lashing out. I could see blood pouring down from a head wound of some sort.
Unbelievably someone else was shouting at the ambulance officers to move their "b....... ambulance because I want to get my car out".  The shouter was, rightly, being ignored.
I have seen ambulance officers at work more than once. They do an amazing job. They don't need that sort of hassle.
Some time ago I had a call from a hospital in the city asking if I could come in and help in an emergency situation where the patient could not speak and could not use his regular communication device. (I am second on his list of contacts and his brother was interstate.) It was sufficiently serious that they diverted a non-urgent ambulance case moving a patient from another hospital to the one I needed attend to pick me up. Did they mind? No, as I don't drive not in the least. 
     "Part of the job," the one watching the patient told me. It isn't really but her calm manner made me feel better too. The driver even left me at the right door with instructions of how to get where I needed to go. 
These are the people who discover that the mess on their uniforms is someone else's blood or brains or bones or that, for all their efforts, someone has died. These are the people who face violent drunks and distraught parents and the wrath of people who are impatient. These are the people who work for long periods without a break and risk their lives rushing at high speed down the wrong side of the road when people simply won't pull over to let them pass.
I didn't but I wanted to stop and give the driver of that car a dressing down they would never forget. Instead, I pedalled on and hoped that the situation was quickly resolved. I hope those officers got a break. They would have needed it.