These ambulances are privately run ambulances who took up the contracts for patient transport. This is something that the LAS used to do in London, but then with the sneaking privatisation of the NHS the private companies started to do things cheaper and so the LAS lost a lot of these contracts.
They have, as far as I know, no exemptions to where they can park (unlike us proper emergency ambulances).
I'm not quite sure how “They clamp ambulances parked for more than an hour “to allow other vehicles into the area,” works though, surely if they are clamped then they are still blocking the area?
I don't know, I'm an ambulance driver, not an ambulance parker. And if you've ever seen me park, that much is pretty obvious.
finally navigated my way through the sign up routine in order to post:”surely if they are clamped then they are still blocking the area” – you know, I wondered that too.
(it was worth waiting for, wasn't it?)
(Of course it was!)
“unlike us proper emergency ambulances”Ouch!
Hence the ironic/sarcastic/humour strikethrough.Childish I know…
I wish they'd clamp my ambulance. Get me OTR for an hour or two.
Clamping something when they want it to be moved – that's always baffled me. They did it to parents cars on moving-out day when I was at uni – baffled me just as much then…
Oh good. No not that they were clamped but good that i am not the only one bemused by the raison d'etre behind clamping. It's a contradiction in physics… innit?I came across a SJA crew doing patient transfers the other day. Sub-contracted for work in the area now covered by the West Mids Amb Trust but the SJAs were from Cardiff. Go figure! … rolling eye moment…
You've really got to wonder at the mentality of the staff at the hospital, really…
Ha that's an entirely different Priory! Still, we've got to earn our money somewhere… we tend to share our work around neighbouring counties if we can't cover it :p