Health And Safety Comes First

In our increasingly strange, politically correct, woke, cancel culture, health and safety aware society ....

 

UK Emergency Services Let Down By Current Command Policies

..... its amazing that any of the emergency services work at all. 

 

Take for example the Greater Manchester Fire Service in England ... It appears that its high command has been infected with much of the heavy handed PC concerns that the left has often inflicted upon us ... even when some jobs are by their very nature, responding to dangerous events, or helping others in a public emergency.

 

So when the Islamic bomber committed his outrage at the Manchester Arena in 2017, following a concert by American singer Ariana Grande, its perhaps not a massive surprise to find that when the bomb blast was reported, the Manchester fire chiefs reportedly took over two hours to release a number of trained rescue teams to the scene. 

 

These teams were meant to be the terrorist attack specialist response teams, and equipped with stretchers and first aid units, even the delayed initial firefighter deployment, was only the standard 12 firefighters (the number deployed to a normal house fire).

 

Staff Duty Of Care, Overrides A Public Emergency ...

This was because they were so "risk averse" (according to Matthew Hall, who as ex-deputy commissioner of the London Fire Service, who was the 'expert' making the report), and that for a least an hour and 20 minutes after the blast, there was no one effectively in charge of their response. This resulted in fire fighters being held back at a fire station just 3 miles away, because the commanders had to make a balanced decision, between saving the lives of the public (which is in fact the reason for their existence), and the safety "duty of care" of the firefighters. 

 

On the other hand, the front-line police turned up immediately, with only protecting the public as their primary consideration, however the Greater Manchester Police command neglected to officially declare it a terrorist incident to the other emergency services (But as it was on all the news channels as a suspected terrorist incident within 20 minutes, that's hardly an excuse for the other services). There was also criticism that the emergency service commanders didn't meet up at the site to co-ordinate the response. 

 

The Police Went In Numbers - But Makeshift Stretchers Had To Be Used

 

The Ambulance service also was subject to criticism. However while only three paramedics actually went to the blast centre, medical treatment was provided nearby by other paramedics in the casualty clearance areas where the injured were being taken to, but this resulted in many casualties being carried from the scene on makeshift stretchers. Again this was because of local health and safety polices and procedures, which prohibited paramedics working in the blast area. 

 

I don't know why this inappropriate response scandal has only received mainly local press coverage, and virtually no government follow up, or no calls in parliament by MP's to scourge the safety checks culture (and people), that apparently paralysed one emergency service in to complete inactivity, and hindered another, during a national disaster. This public sector inflexible and bureaucratic response, has been displayed during the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions, the civil service and public sector office workers, are refusing to go back to their offices, until duty of care, health and safety assessment reviews are carried out on every building, and probably every local office cupboard, while the private sector has largely returned to working more normally, even after conducting their own safety reviews quickly.

But think on this, if 9/11 had been in Manchester, then the Fire Service and Ambulance service responses would have responded very differently to those in New York   .... what a national scandal that would have been!