Changes

You may, or may not have noticed a few changes that have been going on recently - I've stopped reporting statistics and detailing every call on every shift and I'm not reporting as often as I used to.

I've been writing this blog for more than four years and it has been hard work. Not that this has deterred me in my mission to uncover the game we play out here - the tragedy, sadness, abuse and downright stupidity that my colleagues and I face every day. It has tired me out over the years and I sometimes find it difficult to see wood for trees; clinically this makes it a risky business.

So, I'm giving my family more time, paying more attention to my business and getting on with my future career. I'll be coming 'off the road' in due course - I need a break from the stuff I've been working with over the years, especially as a solo on the car. I may opt for a six month hiatus, possibly longer but I will still be writing - I'll just be writing differently.

Postings will now cover calls that are interesting or relevant... or that have a pertinent point to make. I've recorded two years of stats and I'm sure those of you who have bothered to look closely at them will be as shocked as I am about the nature of our emergency system and the abuse it suffers. Nobody is doing anything about it - we are just throwing more money at it than ever before. This is not the time for such reckless spending of public money.

This change isn't new. When I first started the blog, I reported only those jobs that were worth writing about, so I am just going back to my roots as it were. I also need time to finish the novel, which is 2/3 complete. A final push into my fictional world will be worth more in terms of enjoyment than a continuation of my record of nonsense calls and drunken behaviour; or as one unkind person described it - drivel.

I am also very restricted these days - the bigger the blog has become, the worse the imposition on my right to free speech. If I could write exactly the way I think and speak, not only would I feel happier about it but I would spend less of my precious time editing and re-editing every post (sanitising them almost) and you would be reading me as I am, without the flannel and sterlisation.

There it is then. The blog is changing and hopefully that will be a good thing. I am proud to have been the inspiration for so many new paramedics, some of whom I've met at work without knowing why they know who I am. This is a positive thing; it shows that my writing has been good for something and may well have shaped the future of people I would otherwise never had anything in common with.

I'm going to get on with the books I have planned because I love to write but I love it more when I don't have to listen to other people telling me what I can and cannot write.

Xf