The Student Room Group

I work for the ambulance service, ask me anything!

Scroll to see replies

Original post by ChaoticButterfly
Labour or Conservatives?

Labour have a policy I hugely disagree with, but I hate the Conservatives more. So neither are exactly my ideal party, but out of the two I'd pick Labour.

Original post by MKaur18
That’s amazing! I didn’t know all of this was done by the ambulance crew as well. 👍🏽 Wow!

Ambulances aren't just for taking people to hospital. That used to be what they did; you can watch Call The Midwife (which is TV so not always accurate) and all the ambulances do is come and pick people up. But now we do treat and leave people at home if possible, or can refer people to other services such as the GP if appropriate.
Original post by BlueLightDriver
Labour have a policy I hugely disagree with, but I hate the Conservatives more. So neither are exactly my ideal party, but out of the two I'd pick Labour.


Ambulances aren't just for taking people to hospital. That used to be what they did; you can watch Call The Midwife (which is TV so not always accurate) and all the ambulances do is come and pick people up. But now we do treat and leave people at home if possible, or can refer people to other services such as the GP if appropriate.


I am interested in Holby City and Casualty. I didn’t think of the ambulance crew checking the vehicle and cleaning the ambulance once leaving the patient at the hospital etc.

Do you feel that your paid fairly? What is your opinion on Brexit affecting the NHS? What do you think of the NHS’s future?
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by MKaur18
I am interested in Holby City and Casualty. I didn’t think of the ambulance crew checking the vehicle and cleaning the ambulance once leaving the patient at the hospital etc.

Do you feel that your paid fairly? What is your opinion on Brexit affecting the NHS? What do you think of the NHS’s future?


If you watch Casualty, they show the ambulance crews as having downtime to play basketball. That doesn't happen.

In my service, we do have a vehicle prep team that is supposed to check all of the kit is on the ambulance and in date/clean/correct etc. But to them it's just a list of things to check and they don't fully understand the importance. So things do sometimes get missed or put in the wrong place. That;s why we check ourselves. We know that if headblocks are missing then we can improvise but if some other things are missing it could be a disaster.

With cleaning, we do a basic clean after every patient. If the patient is known to have something contagious, or if they vomited etc then we'd do a deeper clean, which can include mopping out the vehicle. If they're seriously contagious or have things like bed bugs then the vehicle will be taken off the road for a specialist deep clean.

I think the world has got pay structures wrong. It's crazy that footballers (well, any sports star or popstar etc) get paid so much and yet people who save lives get so much less. But I also think that carers and teachers and nursery staff should get more. I think there are huge problems in the care sector where care staff are undervalued when they do hugely necessary jobs, and HCAs and sometimes even nursing staff get that too.

I think Brexit affecting the NHS depends on the terms negiotiated. The NHS does have a huge number of foreign staff, although they're not just European but worldwide. So if Bexit is going to make visas difficult or similar then I think it's going to be awful. I don't even think we could adopt a position of attracting skilled staff (like Australia have skilled migration) because a lot of the jobs are things like carers and cleaners which wouldn't be seen as skilled but are necessary.

I think the problem with the NHS is that things are different now and those things are much more expensive. As I already said, years ago when people called an ambulance they'd get 2 people, a van and a stretcher. Now, they get 2 people, a £150,000 ambulance and all the kit. Most people who go to hospital will get blood tests as standard, and may then get an MRI or an X-Ray or a CT etc. So all the treatment is so much more expensive.
Add to that the fact that people are surviving things they wouldn't have survived years ago (like heart attacks, or even just increased life expectancy with some conditions) and you've got a larger population, with extensive co-morbidities that are now requiring more expensive treatment. And that's going to cost a lot more money. Some reports say things like "population has increased by x% so we need x% more spending) but that's ignoring the rising costs of treatment. This increase isn't just in the emergency departments and ambulance service. Part of the problem with A&E waiting times is that some patients are ready to be moved on (to a ward, or a care home) but there's nowhere to go. There are a lot of elderly/disabled people who have a care package in place, but then acquire further injury/illness that means they need a hospital stay, and when they're ready to leav hospital that existing care pacakage is no longer suitable.

So I think that's a long winded way of saying that I think the NHS is in trouble and needs huge reforms.
Original post by BlueLightDriver
Labour have a policy I hugely disagree with


Which one? :beard:
Original post by ChaoticButterfly
Which one? :beard:


I am very against gender self-ID. I am not against trans, and I think that is where the argument gets muddled.
Original post by BlueLightDriver
If you watch Casualty, they show the ambulance crews as having downtime to play basketball. That doesn't happen.

In my service, we do have a vehicle prep team that is supposed to check all of the kit is on the ambulance and in date/clean/correct etc. But to them it's just a list of things to check and they don't fully understand the importance. So things do sometimes get missed or put in the wrong place. That;s why we check ourselves. We know that if headblocks are missing then we can improvise but if some other things are missing it could be a disaster.

With cleaning, we do a basic clean after every patient. If the patient is known to have something contagious, or if they vomited etc then we'd do a deeper clean, which can include mopping out the vehicle. If they're seriously contagious or have things like bed bugs then the vehicle will be taken off the road for a specialist deep clean.

I think the world has got pay structures wrong. It's crazy that footballers (well, any sports star or popstar etc) get paid so much and yet people who save lives get so much less. But I also think that carers and teachers and nursery staff should get more. I think there are huge problems in the care sector where care staff are undervalued when they do hugely necessary jobs, and HCAs and sometimes even nursing staff get that too.

I think Brexit affecting the NHS depends on the terms negiotiated. The NHS does have a huge number of foreign staff, although they're not just European but worldwide. So if Bexit is going to make visas difficult or similar then I think it's going to be awful. I don't even think we could adopt a position of attracting skilled staff (like Australia have skilled migration) because a lot of the jobs are things like carers and cleaners which wouldn't be seen as skilled but are necessary.

I think the problem with the NHS is that things are different now and those things are much more expensive. As I already said, years ago when people called an ambulance they'd get 2 people, a van and a stretcher. Now, they get 2 people, a £150,000 ambulance and all the kit. Most people who go to hospital will get blood tests as standard, and may then get an MRI or an X-Ray or a CT etc. So all the treatment is so much more expensive.
Add to that the fact that people are surviving things they wouldn't have survived years ago (like heart attacks, or even just increased life expectancy with some conditions) and you've got a larger population, with extensive co-morbidities that are now requiring more expensive treatment. And that's going to cost a lot more money. Some reports say things like "population has increased by x% so we need x% more spending) but that's ignoring the rising costs of treatment. This increase isn't just in the emergency departments and ambulance service. Part of the problem with A&E waiting times is that some patients are ready to be moved on (to a ward, or a care home) but there's nowhere to go. There are a lot of elderly/disabled people who have a care package in place, but then acquire further injury/illness that means they need a hospital stay, and when they're ready to leav hospital that existing care pacakage is no longer suitable.

So I think that's a long winded way of saying that I think the NHS is in trouble and needs huge reforms.


I agree that the world has got their pay structures incorrect.

Interesting to counter in more expensive treatments and life expectancy. They’re really good points. How many hours do you work a week and do you think you can pay off your degree? (You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to).
Original post by MKaur18
I agree that the world has got their pay structures incorrect.

Interesting to counter in more expensive treatments and life expectancy. They’re really good points. How many hours do you work a week and do you think you can pay off your degree? (You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to).


I work 37.5 hours per week. But it doesn't work out like that every week as we do 8, 10 or 12 hour shifts mainly. So this week I'm working 4 10 hour shifts, and last week I had 7 days off. Overall it averages out at the correct amount.

I don't have a degree in paramedic science (I'm not a paramedic). I do have a degree, but it's not under the new fee structure so I didn't have to pay £9000 a year tuition fees. So I'm fairly confident I will pay it off, since it was only around £8000 at its highest.
I think if I did a degree now then it's highly unlikely I'd pay it off if I took the maximum loan.
Original post by BlueLightDriver
I work 37.5 hours per week. But it doesn't work out like that every week as we do 8, 10 or 12 hour shifts mainly. So this week I'm working 4 10 hour shifts, and last week I had 7 days off. Overall it averages out at the correct amount.

I don't have a degree in paramedic science (I'm not a paramedic). I do have a degree, but it's not under the new fee structure so I didn't have to pay £9000 a year tuition fees. So I'm fairly confident I will pay it off, since it was only around £8000 at its highest.
I think if I did a degree now then it's highly unlikely I'd pay it off if I took the maximum loan.


Ah okay. Fair enough. Can you choose your shifts or are you limited by when your “managers” put you on?

Oh okay, £8000 that’s still a lot. How much interest did you pay or are paying?
Original post by MKaur18
Ah okay. Fair enough. Can you choose your shifts or are you limited by when your “managers” put you on?

Oh okay, £8000 that’s still a lot. How much interest did you pay or are paying?


It is a fairly large amount, but it doesn't affect anything. It's taken directly from my wages so I can't pay late, and they only send me statements once a year so I can forget about it. I'm not sure what the interest rate is, but it's one of the lower interest ones so it's less than I'd pay if I had a commercial loan elsewhere.

When you first start with any ambulance service you go on something called "relief", which is where you have a set pattern of early/late/night shifts but don't know what those shifts are going to be. The purpose of relief is to fill in the gaps where other staff are off sick or on holiday. So you know in advance that you're working an early shift one week, but you won't know closer to the time what exactly those shifts are. You'll have a "base station" where hopefully the majority of your shifts are, but if there are no shifts availabe then you'll be sent whereever there are spaces.
There is a bit of flexibility to phone up and see if there is something else available, but you're limited to what shifts are available.

Once you've been with the service for a while then you'll get a "line". This means that you get a set rota pattern, and know exactly what shifts you're doing and where you're based for months in advance. When you have a line, that is the set pattern you're expected to do. Different lines have different patterns, so when you're offered a line you can have a bit of choice over which you'd prefer. You can obviously book holiday if you don't want to work a particular day, or if there's someone else willing then you can arrange to swap shifts with them.
Reply 89
I was read some stories before, some of ambulance driver are faced paranormal activity when they drive with death body. Do you faced this types of things in your life?
How would I become an ambulance technician? What training courses would I need to do?
Original post by unkabir
I was read some stories before, some of ambulance driver are faced paranormal activity when they drive with death body. Do you faced this types of things in your life?

I do find dead bodies a bit creepy. I'm almost convinced they're going to jump out at me or something :dontknow:

Original post by Bailey99H
How would I become an ambulance technician? What training courses would I need to do?


Generally, ambulance services offer in-house training. So you'd apply for the job, and then get trained up during the initial part of your employment. Different services have different requirements, but generally you need GCSE C grades in maths and English, some experience working with the public (eg retail, call centre, air hostess, traffic warden... anything where you speak to customers) and an interest in first aid. You don't need much of a medical background, but if you can do a first aid course at any level that would be great. You also need to have a C1 driving licence.

The actual qualification you need is the IHCD Ambulance Technician, or there's a new version run by FutureQuals. You can study this yourself but it's very expensive. So you're much better off spending your money on your C1 entitlement, as that will probably cost around £1000 to do, and then just applying to the service you want to join.
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by Volibear
@BlueLightDriver
I'm planning to apply to medical school this year (as a graduate) and was considering ambulance technician/emergency care assistant as a gap year job (great experience for medicine + money + sounds like a very interesting job). However, given the training length, do you think it's worth it? I'm applying this year for 2019 entry so would start medical school in ~September 2019. Of course, this is assuming I get an offer this cycle. Would it be frowned upon given the fact that I may only be around for about a year? Do you think I should look at something else instead?


If you want to become an ambulance technician, you need to do a classroom based course of around 22 weeks, a further 5 weeks supernumary placement, and then one year under supervision. So you would not be able to gain the qualification if you could only commit one year to it. The qualification probably won't matter in the long run if you complete the medicine degree and go on to become a doctor, but it might look a bit odd to employers if you change your mind and take a different path.

You'll also need your C1 driving licence, which means you have to have your car (B) licence and then take further tests to add the higher categories. I've explained a bit about the steps [url=
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4634260&p=77158934&page=6&highlight=#post77158934
]here. It's quite expensive - you're looking at £50+ for the medical, theory test is £37 (£26 and £11 for the two parts), and then about £800 for the lessons with practical test included. This also takes quite a long time, and you can't start the job (not even the classroom bit) until you have your full licence.

There can be inflexibility about shifts. You can apply for holiday but you might not get the dates you want, and although it's possible to arrange a shift swap you might not be able to find someone who wants to. So if you're given a set date for an interview at short notice it might not be possible to attend.

But it is a great experience, and it will be something different that not many people will do. You'll get a lot of exposure in talking to patients, relatives and other HCPs. During your degree you may be able to stay on and do bank shifts which would be a much more interesting part time job than say retail. I would advise looking on the NHS Jobs website (all trusts will advertise there) as soon as possible, as there is a long time from application to start date.

Another job to consider might be as a 999 call handler, a 111 advisor, or a Non-emergency ambulance crew. These would all have shorter training, and the first 2 wouldn't need a C1 licence. But you'd still get experience talking to patients and relatives.
Original post by Volibear
Thank you for the reply! It seems like this isn't going to be an option after all unfortunately :frown: I've looked into being a 999 call handler but ideally I need hands on experience so I don't think it would count. Could you tell me more about the non-emergency ambulance job? I've read a little bit about it already. Would it be a more feasible job to get and work for for a year? Or is the training just as long?


Depending how mature you are, you might not need a C1: you only need it if you passed your car test after 1997. If you passed before that, you'll probably want to get some practise driving larger vehicles but don't need to do another test.

With non-emergency transport, there are two different types. There's Patient Transport (PTS) which tends to be in white ambulances run by a private company (eg DHL have some contracts). This is essentially a taxi service for people with mobility needs. It's for people who needed to go to hospital, but after reatment can't get themselves home (think elderly and disabled, not just "I have no money for a taxi":wink: so need extra help. You'd collect someone who has been discharged, use a wheelchair/trolley to transport them, and then assist them into their home. Because they've already been treated and discharged, you wouldn't need any clinical skills for this.

But there's also another role, which has several names like Ambulance Care Assistant, Emergency Care Assistant Emergency Support. These tend to be Band 3 with the previous role being Band 2, so that might help you narrow things down in an jobs.nhs.uk search. This is mainly collecting people and taking them to hospital for treatment, because of things like GP referrals. So you'd get some clinical skills as the patient hasn't had treatment yet, and you'll be taught how to assess if the patient is ill enough to need further help (ie ambulance crew) and request that help. You wouldn't get as many clinical skills as a technician role, but you'd still get to talk to ill people who are worried about going to hospital for treatment. Some paramedic uni courses send their new students on placements in this role, because you get to develop patient care skills without the pressure of really sick people. So although it's less clinical it's still valuable experience.
The training is around 8 weeks or so in total. This is split to spend the first few weeks in the classroom learning clinical stuff, manual handling, use of equipment etc and then the last 3 or 4 weeks are spent on driving skills.
the ambulance is at my house right now. dad had chest pain and lost consciousness
Have you ever had someone come in because they where
bit in the face by a lion?
Have you ever had someone come in because they where
bit in the face by a tiger?
Original post by Volibear
Thank you so much for you information!!

I actually passed my driving test in 2014 (I'm 22) so that should hopefully be ok?

They both sound very interesting. Naturally the one which involves me learning clinical skills is more attractive though. Thank you for clearing up, I always thought that anything with emergency etc. was another way to describe an ambulance technician!

Do you know how often there are vacancies for these roles? Because I haven't found that many London based ones on the NHS jobs website and even fewer on the Trac website. Would you say that any adverts which appear on the Indeed.co.uk site are legit? Because I've found loads on there.

I'm really sorry, I meant if you'd done your car (B) licence before 1997 you wouldn't need a further C1. If you passed in 2014 then unfortunately, you would need to take the additional test and associated faff.

Ambulance role names are very confusing, even for people who work in the service. It’s partly political, but that doesn’t explain all of the madness. A few years ago, they declared they wouldn’t recruit any more technicians, the intention being that they would only employ paramedics. What actually happened was they stuck to the exact wording used, because they didn’t call them technicians: they employed the same role, but with a different name.

Generally, the pay band will give you an idea. The lower the number, the lower the responsibility and skills. Technicians are band 4 or 5, with paramedics being band 6 (or 5 for newly qualified). If it’s pay band 2 it’s not a very clinical role, so I’d advise looking at band 3. If you’re looking at other companies rather than NHS then you can google the pay band monetary equivalents.

Any NHS Trust will advertise on the NHS Jobs website, so I’d recommend looking there regularly. Based on other forum posts, I think the London Ambulance Service has just finished their recruitment period so I wouldn’t expect them to advertise for a while. But if you’re north/south/east/west London there may be neighbouring trusts that advertise East of England, South Central, South East. I’ve had a quick look on Indeed and I’ve heard of most of the places that are advertising. I can’t guarantee that the job adverts are legitimate, but St John, BEARS, Arriva, G4S, Pro Medicus, Falck, Pertemps (and probably others there, I didn’t go through the whole list) are ones I know of. It can be competitive, so apply to all of them and use any feedback/rejections to improve your application and interview.
Original post by anonymous69gcse
the ambulance is at my house right now. dad had chest pain and lost consciousness

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope everythig is OK now.
Original post by DontEatMyCheese
Have you ever had someone come in because they where
bit in the face by a lion?

No, but I did once go to a job at a zoo.
Original post by DontEatMyCheese
Have you ever had someone come in because they where
bit in the face by a tiger?

Also no. And FYI, people don't really "come in". They tend to phone an ambulance and then we go to them.
Reply 99
What's the silliest reason someone has been transported in an ambulance you've seen?

I'm asking because my tonsil was bleeding once (not even all that much really) and an ambulance took me to from one hospital to another (with the right ENT doctos) and I thought it was brilliant how well I was taken care of even for an issue that seemed honestly not too serious to me.

Quick Reply