Emergencies

Island life has it's good and it's bad points as does rural life anywhere. There was an article on the news this evening informing us that an ambulance could take over 20 minutes to get to some rural communities. What they really meant was rural communities in England because outside of some major cities in Scotland there is little or no data.

The article on the BBC website says:

The most critically injured patients in rural areas are at risk due to the time it takes the ambulance service to reach them, a BBC investigation has found.

Some rural communities wait more than 20 minutes on average for 999 crews or trained members of the community to get to immediately life-threatening cases like cardiac arrests and stab victims.

A response should come in six to eight minutes, depending on where you live.

The accompanying map:

I think that once can be fairly certain in saying that in many rural areas in Scotland, 20 minutes would not even be achievable by an air ambulance. That's just a reality of rural life.

Citizen Firefighter

When I passed Glasgow's Central Station recently I decided to take another picture of 'Citizen Firefighter'.

The bronze statue named Citizen Firefighter was sculpted by Kenny Hunter.  It recognises the work of firefighters past and present and is in remembrance of those who have risked their lives and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in an attempt to save people from burning buildings.

Less than three months after it was unveiled on June 17 2001, Citizen Firefighter became a focal point for the people of Glasgow after the events of September 11 in New York and became a place for many to leave flowers and tributes to the many firefighters who died in those events.

Citizen Firefighter also stands as a reminder of all of the Glasgow firefighters who have died while on duty.  Perhaps the first of those was Fireman James Bruce who, on January 15, 1832, fell to his death from a ladder while tackling a fire in the former Queen's Court building on the east side of Queen Street.