VHI - Swiftcare Swords

[marcopol]

I fell off one of my bikes in Dublin on Sunday, bloody Diesel on the road with rain lying on top of it. I hit the ground pretty hard on my left side. BTW bike is OK. I was lying on the wet oily road winded thinking I was just shot by a sniper. Fortunately an ambulance was parked next to where I hit the ground and the crew checked me over. After a thorough check they gave the all clear even though I was hurting like flook. They said that nothing was broken and it was just bad bruising. Whilst the adrenilin was still working I got on the bike and drove home to Ashbourne. Incidentally a nice crowd of bystanders picked up the bike and parked it in between the two rails of the Luas track.
Anyway went home and the real pain started to kick in. Said that if I felt any worse then I would go the the A&E in the morning which was the bank holiday
Monday. Woke up and felt even worse and decided to speed things up and visit the VHI Swift clinic in Swords. After waiting an hour I was eventually seen. Doctor had me doing all sorts of movements and poked me a few times and concluded that nothing was broken and that no Xray was needed and prescribed a shit load of painkillers. On the way out I saw a notice stating that X-Ray facilities were not available on bank holidays and wondered was this the real reason he did not want to X-Ray me. The pain killers didnt work that well and new pains startd to develop and bruising started to appear and to my great surprise my left side had a developed a clicking noise internally. I went back to the Swift Clinic this morning and insisted on an X-Ray. Guess what ! 3 fractured ribs.
Moral of the story if you need A&E that my require an X-Ray and are considering using the Swiftcare Clinic check before you leave the house on a bank holday to see if X-Ray facilities are available.

 

[GSless Girl]

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate accident, I'd be reluctant to go near them at all. I'd travel a little further down to the Smithfield clinic with is offering treatment to the same types of illnesses/incidents but is a satellite clinic of the Mater A&E thus offering all the expertise of the Mater should you need it.

 

[marcopol]

Clinic

I never knew it existed. Sounds like the best option. Thanks.

 

[Ravenbyrne]

Glad your ok, although I think I'd rather have broken an arm than some ribs

Only about a month of discomfort to go

 

[marcopol]

Glad your ok, although I think I'd rather have broken an arm than some ribs

Only about a month of discomfort to go

To make things worse I now have a chest infection. Every cough is agony.
Whilst you are there raven my daughter is considering doing a 10 week EMT course at the end of this month with Medicall. Do you know them ?

 

[Ravenbyrne]

To make things worse I now have a chest infection. Every cough is agony.
Whilst you are there raven my daughter is considering doing a 10 week EMT course at the end of this month with Medicall. Do you know them ?

Yes I know them very well (have done 3 courses with them) and would highly recommend them but just so you know, there are almost no opertunities for EMT's and if she really wants to get into emergency care there is talk that UCD will be doing private Paramedic training next year.

I'm away to the UK later this year to train as an Offshore Medic which will licience me to work on rigs.

If you need any more details pm me and I'll give you some more details.

Cheers,

Brian

 

[Micky]

Sorry to hear this marcopol

Try not to laugh or cough ... cos broken ribs are painful

All the best for a quick and pain free recovery

 

[marcopol]

Sorry to hear this marcopol

Try not to laugh or cough ... cos broken ribs are painful

All the best for a quick and pain free recovery

Thank you kindly, I am planning on some black pain killers tonight as an additional supplement.

 

[marcopol]

Yes I know them very well (have done 3 courses with them) and would highly recommend them but just so you know, there are almost no opertunities for EMT's and if she really wants to get into emergency care there is talk that UCD will be doing private Paramedic training next year.

I'm away to the UK later this year to train as an Offshore Medic which will licience me to work on rigs.

If you need any more details pm me and I'll give you some more details.

Cheers,

Brian

Grand, thanks. BTW she is only 18 now so even if there were EMT jobs going she would have to wait until she was 21. Would she be better waiting another year or two to do the course

 

[Ravenbyrne]

Grand, thanks. BTW she is only 18 now so even if there were EMT jobs going she would have to wait until she was 21. Would she be better waiting another year or two to do the course

First thing I would do is contact the UCD Centre for Emergency Medical Science www.ucd.ie/genpract | [email protected] | 01 716 6665 / 01 716 6666 and ask them about the (Private) Paramedic course.

I was told "off the record" that they will be running it next year. Because it's not official yet it would be hard to put a cost on it but I recon you won't have much change out of €20k

Has she done any formal emergency first aid training to date??.. if not I would recommend that she tries the Emergency First Responder course first, it's a lot cheaper and it will give her a good feel for emergency care work as a career.

Is she involved with any of the voluntary agencies ie; St Johns Ambulance, Order of Malta, Red Cross, Civil Defence most of them give training in this field and it won't cost her/you a penny

 

[GSless Girl]

€20k how long is the course running for, can you see a base requirement for entry. Then again I'd imagine those interested in this type of course would have had their ears wet from somewhere before.
With any luck the hse will have lifted the embargo by the end of the course and some of them might be able to get a job in our own ambulance services.