Medical Centre

[Ruwise]

Thank you fewcloudy - I appreciate your post. I realise that as bad as it was, my injury could have been significantly worse - I've been very lucky thanks to Yeovil being brilliant and doing everything they could, and the John Radcliffe in Oxford being even more brilliant when presented with a very big mess to sort out.

And yes, Bubblecup, I will be contacting Festival Medical with my feedback - I'd like them to learn from it so that if the same thing happens next year, no-one has to go through the pain and stress I have. I understand that a broken bone is not life-threatening, but my injury was complex and certainly limb-threatening and could have been much less serious if it had been dealt with in a timely way not dismissed as 'just a fracture'.

[stuartbert two hats]

you realise a lot of the people who work these things are unpaid volunteers giving up there time to look after others? your talking about a festival with 140000 people attending so on a saturday night with the conditions being what they were you were probably waiting so long simply due to busyness same as any a&e department in the land, I actually find you trying to blame the volunteer medical staff for your injury getting worse quite disgusting....put it this way youd have been a lot worse off if they werent there at all eh?

and you have the cheek to compare the festival medical staff to a fuilly equipped full time hospital.....thats just astounding.

Feel sorry for you for your injury but your attitude stinks.

Edited July 14, 2014 by stuartbert two hats

[pie_and_a_pint]

Hope you are feeling better now. Sorry you had a bad experience. You didn't by any chance get a shout out on Stuart Maconie's show this morning. He mentioned somebody who broke their leg at Glastonbury and I wondered if it was you.

[stuartbert two hats]

(I'm a 'she' by the way, stuartbert two hats )

Edited July 14, 2014 by stuartbert two hats

[pie_and_a_pint]

Doh! I'm normally quite careful about not using gender pronouns unless I know the sex of the person I'm talking about. I thought I knew you were a man for some reason. Duh.

I'm going to edit my post now!

[SeaShells]

I went there at 6:30am on the Thursday morning due to an allergic reaction. Service was great and received my prescription and medication within no time.

P.S hope you're beginning to feel better now Pie

[pie_and_a_pint]

P.S hope you're beginning to feel better now Pie

[Ruwise]

Yes, that was me! I was chuffed!

(I'm a 'she' by the way, stuartbert two hats )

[willutalk]

Despite the slightly lengthy wait, I thought the medical centre treated my friend Pat really really well. He had a problem with his toe nail which caused pain when walking, so he wanted to get treatment for it early so we went on the Thursday. Although it initially hurt, after a plier manoeuvre and some dressing applied to it, he started saying it felt better 15 mins after which was great and made his festival just that much better.

[eFestivals]

An ambulance would have been called and you would have been taken to hospital and got there considerably quicker

not sure about that, given that if FMS weren't there every single case would be being transported to hospital. Are there even enough ambulances within the local services for the rate they'd be needed on a Saturday night?

That's not trying to excuse any fuck-up if there was any, just trying to keep things within the real-world possibilities.

And of course, within those real-world possibilities is the possibility of getting poor care where you might be taken instead, because fuck-ups happen everywhere. If there is any 'poor quality' issue within FMS, the same poor quality exists within the qualified profession seeing as they're qualified personnel working for FMS.

[Digi]

I hope you are feeling much better now Pie and a Pint

I'm a senior sister/ward manager at a major trauma centre 'Ooop Norf'. On the Saturday night of the festival I ended up going to assist someone close to my tent who needed medical attention and was in a 'not so great' way. It took FMS a good 40 minutes to get to us as they were rammed. We tried to treat the person on the spot but couldn't so he needed transporting to hospital - it took a good hour for an ambulance to get him... and even then the ambulance really couldn't get to him... we ended up putting him on a scoop and several of us carried the scoop over guy wires until we could get to an area were we could get him on a stretcher trolley.

What I am trying to say is that resources are limited and whilst I very much appreciate that you had a hell of a wait - they were completely manic with hospital admissions. It is highly likely that had they requested an ambulance for transfer soon, you wouldn't have got one for several hours anyway because I know from talking to FMS Saturday was a particularly heavy night that saw lots of people need serious medical attention and whilst I know it is of little comfort to you, they have triage in the best way possible... so they will triage ankle injuries under people who are completely unconscious and unresponsive as was the case with one of the people next to us

If anyone reading should happen to know who I am talking about - could you give me a heads up to how he is please? Just incase any of you read this thread. I don't want to mention his name but my name is Christina and we were camped in Baileys just by Gate D

Once again Pie and a Pint.... I hope you are starting to feel alot better soon and feel free to rant away. It is horrid when you are in pain and just want to be fixed....

[Leggins]

I work for SWASFT the ambulance service that covers Glastonbury.

And I don't think you necessarily would have been worse off if they hadn't been there at all, as thatcrazypenguin states. An ambulance would have been called and you would have been taken to hospital and got there considerably quicker,

fc

[Migraine]

I had a really good experience with FMS, I went in on the Wednesday with a really minor complaint (hay fever, my face was leaking in a big way despite prescription medicine) I was prepared to wait a long time as in the grand. Scheme of things hay fever is pretty petty.

I was triaged within 10 minutes and seen by a doctor within a further 20, I was expecting humiliation for bothering them with my ailment but the doctor was very helpful and while there was nothing else he could prescribe he did recommend switching to some over the counter meds rather than the prescription ones.

I have lived all over the country and used an awful lot of doctors and without doubt the guy that I saw I would say was the most empathetic doctor I have ever dealt with, I keep meaning to send a letter of thanks to FMS in hope that it gets passed on.

---------------

Pie I hope that you contact FMS so they at least have the option to take your feedback on and then they can choose to act, or not, on it in the future. I don't think that giving negative feedback to volunteers is necessarily a bad thing, I think most of us hope that whatever we are doing we do well and despite it being good feedback being what we crave it's often the negative that helps us sort what may or may not be a problem. In pie's case it could be simply that the medical facilities were overwhelmed at the time she needed its use and her feedback may help get more FMS volunteers at future glastonburys, I would assume that the number of medical professionals are discussed with glastonbury and there is a finite number that FMS are allowed to bring.

Pie, I hope you are on the mend soon

[neilloggie]

Was your friend Paco Pico Piedra?

[grumpyhack]

I have a friend who is a pharmacist and she has worked for FMS for quite a few years at Glasto and other events. As other people have said, the staff have to be qualified professionals and have the same duty of care at the festival that they would have in their 'day jobs.'

It seems that there has been a bit of mixed bag of experiences - some good, some not so good.

I really suggest that you share your experiences with both FMS and GFL. And share both the good and the bad. If they don't get feedback it's hard for them to consider changes/improvements for next year.

[coma girl]

Hope you are feeling better now. Sorry you had a bad experience. You didn't by any chance get a shout out on Stuart Maconie's show this morning. He mentioned somebody who broke their leg at Glastonbury and I wondered if it was you.

[Ruwise]

I have a friend who is a pharmacist and she has worked for FMS for quite a few years at Glasto and other events. As other people have said, the staff have to be qualified professionals and have the same duty of care at the festival that they would have in their 'day jobs.'

It seems that there has been a bit of mixed bag of experiences - some good, some not so good.

I really suggest that you share your experiences with both FMS and GFL. And share both the good and the bad. If they don't get feedback it's hard for them to consider changes/improvements for next year.

[Earthwindandfire2205]

I am a Paramedic with 26 years experience, who works at the festival for Festival Medical Services. I worked the Saturday night in question that Pie and Pint fractured their ankle. We have 4 stretcher ambulances working 24 hrs a day from the Wednesday until the Monday. We have 4 land rovers that are able to assist patients and can transport the walking wounded 24 hrs a day as well. A private firm does the off site transfers with 2 ambulances and well as the normal ambulance service. The speed limit on site is 10 mph , when you are not going through the crowds, when you are lucky to get to 2 mph! I started my shift at 23-30 and was none stop with jobs until I finished at 0800 without a break. The public have no idea how hectic it is to work at the festival as a medic. We deal with a years worth of drug and drink related incidents in one weekend as well as all the other festival related accidents. We are all volunteers who do it not only for the love of the festival but also because we all care about the public! We are lucky to have the facilities that we do at Glastonbury as we are the only festival , I believe to have a mobile X-ray department , without it hundreds more people would have to go off site causing even more delays to the all ready stretched services. When I work in real world 1hr delays are the norm now for ambulances with cutbacks and I have had to wait over 2 hrs many times.

Im sorry that you had to wait an hr for us to get to you but we got there as quick as we possibily could.

I am also sorry you had the delay at Big Ground medical centre but im sure the overworked staff there and the off site transfer team got you away as quick as was possible with an all ready over busy deptment. Like other people have said please email Festival medical Services with your feedback and im sure they will get back to you quickly. Hope you are healing well.

[Migraine]

Earthwindandfire, I hope that you don't take any of the criticism in this thread personally, much like in your job outside of glastonbury I am sure that you could utilise more resources, the same I am sure could be said for glastonbury, especially considering what you have written.

From all the festival goers that didn't need emergency medical treatment thank you very much for being there if we did.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Migraine

[Earthwindandfire2205]

Thank you. No I don't . It must have been very distressing for them to wait in pain and have a long wait at the medical tent. If we had 20 ambulances we would be still busy. All the ambulances are paid for by charity donations. We would love more vans.

[Ruwise]

Though I never have had to use it I totally respect the work you do. I'd say it is reflective of the NHS full of hard working, understaffed people, perhaps not perfect but you'd much rather have it than be without it as then you'd see just how bad healthcare can get!

[Digi]

I really do think FMS and the other related teams (ambulances etc) are getting a bit of an unfair press here.

I work as part of a trauma team so I have spent my fair share of time in A+E on a Saturday night. I will try and give an example of what types of injuries we would see.

Several fights resulting fractured hands/jaw and perhaps a head injury

Numerous drink and drug related incidents - and whilst they are self inflicted - the mechanism of their injury and the priority with which we treat them is irrelevant - we have a duty of care to keep them safe regardless

Perhaps a couple of major trauma calls from traffic accidents

An elderly person who has fallen and fractured their neck of femur (hip)

Several patients with chest pains

A stroke or two

A couple of febrile children who are poorly and fitting because of a high temperature

Several fractured ankles/wrists - both adults and kids

I could go on and on but it is not unusual to see 100 patients pass through our doors on a busy Saturday night

What I am trying to say I suppose is that it would be very very VERY rare for anyone, other than the very critically injured to be taken straight to theatre on a Saturday night. I don't know of any hospital that has that type of capacity and I work in one of the top 3 major trauma centres in the country

[bexj]

I didn't know FMS was a charity... keep up the great work guys!

[Earthwindandfire2205]

Yes we are. Most of the money raised after the expenses of running the ambulances, medical tent etc is taken out goes to 2 main projects. One is in Gambia to provide a medical clinic in a village and provide an ambulance to go to the outer villages to bring poorly people to see the doctors. The other is to provide full time doctors in an Indian village. If you go on our website there is more info on us. X

Edited July 16, 2014 by Earthwindandfire2205

[Guest]

much much respect earthwindandfire and that was my original problem with the complainers post.....getting all huffy because you didnt get private hospital level service from first aid volunteers working for a charity (who were probably swamped at the time) is just wrong.