Clarifications over medical cover
FIRSTLY, we would like to repeat our apology from last Friday to all of you who came to the Eddie Wright Raceway, but only saw two races of speedway, before the Scunthorpe v Leicester meeting was abandoned.
We’ve seen many questions asked, and we’d like to take this opportunity to address the following points:
* We have TWO ambulances at the Eddie Wright Raceway for the meetings of the Scunthorpe Scorpions. In addition to the road ambulance, we have our own ambulance fully kitted-out. Having our own ambulance has come to our rescue in the past.
* We are fortunate to have two excellent paramedics in Mike Collins and Steve Patten, depending on their availability. As with many other health professionals, the demands on their time is great. In some weeks, one of Steve or Mike will be working, and we only have one of them at the Eddie Wright Raceway. This was the case last Friday. Mike was working, so we just had Steve.
* In some weeks, both Steve and Mike may be working, and we may end up with the St John Ambulance sending a doctor with their road ambulance.
* The number of paramedics specialising in motorsports is dwindling. If we don’t have two paramedics for any given meeting, it is not a monetary issue, it is about availability. The good people at the NHS are under so much pressure. It’s nothing to do with Covid anymore. It’s all to do with staffing and funding.
* The air ambulance crew did not take Joe Alcock, because they could see that Steve Patten was going such a great job at looking after Joe. They felt he was already in the best and exceptional hands.
* At that point, the air ambulance took their leave and went onto their next job. They could have been saving someone’s life. Their priority is not on the continuation of our speedway meeting.
* Had Joe Alcock’s injuries been even worse (and thank goodness they weren’t), the air ambulance would have taken him.
* Due to the pain that Joe Alcock was in, Steve Patten had started to administer morphine. Once he’s done that, Steve cannot take his leave of him, until he’s handed him over to competent carers. Once the air ambulance crew had decided that Joe was in the best hands with Steve, it meant Steve had to be with Joe, until he was taken to Scunthorpe General Hospital to hand him over at the hospital.
* In the past, because we have two ambulances, someone else has take the injured rider to hospital, while the paramedic has stayed at the Eddie Wright Raceway with the remaining ambulance. This wasn’t possible on Friday, due to Joe being on morphine.
I’m sure once you read the above, you will realise we do everything we can to provide enough medical cover for our speedway meetings, and it’s only an almost unique set of circumstances that caused the abandonment last Friday. As much as the NHS is under increasing pressure, we feel will can cover most eventualities, but not all, as last Friday proved.
Again, we apologise to you. Speedway is a dangerous sport and we have a duty of care to look after any injured riders, but it is also in our business interests to look after our supporters.
This is why we made the goodwill gesture that we did. Supporters with stamped re-admission tickets from last Friday will be able to gain entry to a future meeting without needing to make any additional payment. According to British Speedway guidelines, supporters would have received a £8 discount towards a future meeting, but we don’t feel this went far enough. You only saw two heats of racing for a meeting that was not rained off and you shouldn’t have to pay for that.
We’d also like to point that the only time limit for you to use those tickets is this season. You don’t have to use them in the next three meetings. It’s up to you when you use your stamped tickets to gain admission.
We’d like to conclude by wishing Joe Alcock a speedy recovery from his injuries. We were worried on the night last about Joe and relieved to see the post on his Joe Alcock Racing Facebook account when we got home.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
PHOTO: The ambulance owned by the club.
