Well, our venue has confirmed. Greenside, studio 2! Everyone is very excited and Kat and Sophy are in the process of signing contracts! We're a go! So now begins the arduous and unenviable task of rehearsal schedules, logistics and publicity! The hardest task of all is going to be getting our 'get in' and 'get out' down to five minutes a piece. That is set, band, props and cast in and out in five minutes. I envisage a military style drilling to develop a precision known only to the SAS!
The other issue of fundraising still continues though. The valentines ball preparations are in full swing, the band is booked, the sound and light is ready, the tickets made. Sales are going well, about half have been sold which means any of you lucky readers who wish to come and enjoy an evening of music, food an MADD hats still can! Visit www.maddrama.org to buy your tickets!!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Targets
My local news last night included a story on how the private sector is turning its back on unemployed, redundant public sector workers, with 88% of companies interview brandishing us as 'work shy' and 'not target driven'.
I nearly threw my cup of tea at the television. How dare they!
So, here's a little personal reminder to potential private sector bosses on just hard working and target driven I am.
I work an average of 4 shifts a week., 10 or 12 hrs a shift, including lone working, double crew and supervision of students. I see about 4 to 6 patients a shift. That's somewhere between 800 and 1200 a year. I work predominantly nights as well as raising a family, running a volunteer responder group and supporting the long suffering wife's company (private sector I'll add). I work Christmas, New Year, Bank Holidays, and Birthdays.
I'm answerable to the following targets.
I nearly threw my cup of tea at the television. How dare they!
So, here's a little personal reminder to potential private sector bosses on just hard working and target driven I am.
I work an average of 4 shifts a week., 10 or 12 hrs a shift, including lone working, double crew and supervision of students. I see about 4 to 6 patients a shift. That's somewhere between 800 and 1200 a year. I work predominantly nights as well as raising a family, running a volunteer responder group and supporting the long suffering wife's company (private sector I'll add). I work Christmas, New Year, Bank Holidays, and Birthdays.
I'm answerable to the following targets.
- Mobilisation within 35 seconds,
- Respond to Life Threatening A Catagory calls within 8 minutes,
- For certain calls, Such as Heart Attack, be on scene for less than 20 minutes,
- Monitored against several points with Clinical Performance Indicators for patients suffering Myocardial Infarction, Stroke, Hypoglycaemia and Asthma Attacks,
- Handover at hospital within 15 Minutes,
- Handover to clear within 10 minutes
- Mobilisation to Dispatch point within 5 minutes (I'm not sure on this one!...)
There are other targets that although not solely my responsibility, I help to acheive
- Call to Balloon time of 150 minutes for confirmed STEMI,
- 75% of all Non-Emergency calls for transport to be at their destination within 15mins of the agreed time,
- 75% of all A catagory calls reached within 8 minutes and 90% to have a conveying resource within 19 minutes,
There are even more targets that affect us, such as Call Connect, C Catagory responses, GP OOH's call backs etc.
All these targets affect our funding and our jobs. They ultimately affect the patients, the reason we do the job in the first place.
I'm not stating in any way that we work harder than the private sector, we work just as hard as each other, nor am I saying that these targets are more important than the patients. These private sector bosses, these 88% who were interviewed, really need to take a closer look at the facts before slinging mud and wrighting us off.
Monday, January 16, 2012
A bit of healthy competition?
This is a little impromptu but i have to share!
It finally happened. The long suffering wife decided to have a go at blogging.
"How do I set up one of these blog things?" she asks.
So I showed her where to go and what to then left her own devices.
Credit where credit is due she wrote a very good one and before long was racking up the page views.
This is when it started to get ugly!
First it was casual questions like "how many have you had today?" or "how many did your first one get?". This developed in to a competition, more one sided perhaps as to who could achieve the most views in 24hrs.
Unfortunately I lost.
It's not a bitter defeat, I'm really pleased for her and it really has the potential to be great if the first post is anything to go by! I don't plan on changing the way I blog either as I'm as much about keeping old readers happy as well as getting a wider audience!
So if you want to read a competition winning blog it can found here
It finally happened. The long suffering wife decided to have a go at blogging.
"How do I set up one of these blog things?" she asks.
So I showed her where to go and what to then left her own devices.
Credit where credit is due she wrote a very good one and before long was racking up the page views.
This is when it started to get ugly!
First it was casual questions like "how many have you had today?" or "how many did your first one get?". This developed in to a competition, more one sided perhaps as to who could achieve the most views in 24hrs.
Unfortunately I lost.
It's not a bitter defeat, I'm really pleased for her and it really has the potential to be great if the first post is anything to go by! I don't plan on changing the way I blog either as I'm as much about keeping old readers happy as well as getting a wider audience!
So if you want to read a competition winning blog it can found here
Sunday, January 15, 2012
An Eggceptable Subsitute?!
As you may know, I have chickens. Four little ladies that have been munching their way through what is left of my lawn and pooping on my decking (not a nautical term!).
Well, I had my first egg the other day. A momentous occasion really, and quite a lucky find seeing as it was tucked under some straw and mud on the floor of the run, a little cracked but intact.
I ate it. It was very good!
Since then I have been expectantly looking in the coop for more eggs. This morning I found one, smashed and leaking by the coop door. Clearly the girls hadn't sussed where the nest box was!
Mournfully I disposed of the destroyed egg. Normally one would purchase a fake egg or perhaps a golf ball and place it in a nest to encourage them to lay there, but I had another plan.
Now perhaps because I'm a genius, or more likely because I'm a cheapskate I decided to make my own! This resulted in me making scrambled eggs Heston Blumenthal style, carefully preserving the shells, filling them with flour and water, a bit of red poster paint for colour and then baking them.
This evening I lovingly made a couple of nests and placed my fake eggs in. Now to spend the next few days obsessively checking to see if they have fallen for it!!
Well, I had my first egg the other day. A momentous occasion really, and quite a lucky find seeing as it was tucked under some straw and mud on the floor of the run, a little cracked but intact.
I ate it. It was very good!
Since then I have been expectantly looking in the coop for more eggs. This morning I found one, smashed and leaking by the coop door. Clearly the girls hadn't sussed where the nest box was!
Mournfully I disposed of the destroyed egg. Normally one would purchase a fake egg or perhaps a golf ball and place it in a nest to encourage them to lay there, but I had another plan.
Now perhaps because I'm a genius, or more likely because I'm a cheapskate I decided to make my own! This resulted in me making scrambled eggs Heston Blumenthal style, carefully preserving the shells, filling them with flour and water, a bit of red poster paint for colour and then baking them.
This evening I lovingly made a couple of nests and placed my fake eggs in. Now to spend the next few days obsessively checking to see if they have fallen for it!!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Kids Games?
I pick an unusual topic today. Kids toys...
Those of you who follow me on twitter may have seen my little 'rant' earlier today about the lack of toy ambulances in shops. They are full of fire engines, police cars, construction vehicles and sports cars, but very few ambulances. Even those that do are generally lacking effort, or as in today's case, came with a police man wielding a truncheon! (I can believe some would like this to be a reality when dealing with less salubrious of characters!)
It's not envy at my fellow services, not jealousy that someone hasn't made the effort to create us in miniature, it's bigger than that. Well, it's an element of that, but it's mainly, for me, about a lack of awareness. Kids grow up playing with, recognising, understanding the other services. They become interested, they have a drive to become a police officer or firefighter. They develop (generally) a respect for these services.
They know little about ambulances or Paramedics or the service. They fear them at times, and certainly don't respect them! It's as much the fault of the profession for, in it's nature, being secretive but maybe if they sold more ambulances, RRVs or little plastic helicopters tomorrow's new paramedics might say "I've wanted to do this since I was given a toy ambulance!"
I know they do exist, heck I own a couple, it would just be nice though to pop into a shop and see some on the shelf looking proud next to their colleagues!
Those of you who follow me on twitter may have seen my little 'rant' earlier today about the lack of toy ambulances in shops. They are full of fire engines, police cars, construction vehicles and sports cars, but very few ambulances. Even those that do are generally lacking effort, or as in today's case, came with a police man wielding a truncheon! (I can believe some would like this to be a reality when dealing with less salubrious of characters!)
It's not envy at my fellow services, not jealousy that someone hasn't made the effort to create us in miniature, it's bigger than that. Well, it's an element of that, but it's mainly, for me, about a lack of awareness. Kids grow up playing with, recognising, understanding the other services. They become interested, they have a drive to become a police officer or firefighter. They develop (generally) a respect for these services.
They know little about ambulances or Paramedics or the service. They fear them at times, and certainly don't respect them! It's as much the fault of the profession for, in it's nature, being secretive but maybe if they sold more ambulances, RRVs or little plastic helicopters tomorrow's new paramedics might say "I've wanted to do this since I was given a toy ambulance!"
I know they do exist, heck I own a couple, it would just be nice though to pop into a shop and see some on the shelf looking proud next to their colleagues!
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