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Thoughtless residents target paramedics with aggressive notes on ambulances

East Midlands emergency service urges people to use their common sense over its parked vehicles

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Paramedics are urging people to stop leaving aggressive notes on ambulances when they’re in residential areas on emergencies.

East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) is one of the worst-affected NHS trusts, with thoughtless homeowners regularly slapping rude messages on the windscreens.

Yesterday, EMAS released a statement about a particular incident in Leicester.

After responding to an early-morning emergency in the city, the paramedic crew returned to their ambulance to find a note on the windscreen that read: “You blocked my driveway. I waited 45 mins for you to move. Please have some consideration where you park the ambulance! This is not the first time.”

(EMAS)

In its statement, EMAS said the ambulance had been “parked as considerately as possible”. The trust added: “We would like to urge members of the public to come and speak to us if they urgently need to leave their house and we are blocking their access, rather than leaving us notes which we will not see until leaving the property.”

Lee Brentnall, paramedic and ambulance operations manager at EMAS, added: “It is so disappointing to see that a rude note has yet again been left on one of our ambulances. This upsets our dedicated ambulance crews when they are trying to help our patients and do their job.

“Leaving a note will not resolve the situation, as we are unlikely to see it until we are leaving in the ambulance to take the patient to hospital or to go to our next job.

(PA)

“Our crews are approachable. If you genuinely need to leave your house urgently and we are blocking your access, please come and knock on the door where the emergency is taking place.

“Sometimes we will be able to move the vehicle, for example if we are treating a patient and they do not need both of us there at the time.

“However, there will be times when we are treating someone experiencing a life-threatening and time-critical emergency, and moving our ambulance will not be our priority. In these cases, you will need to be patient as we try to save someone’s life.”

A more extreme incident occurred in Tower Hamlets in May, when a London Ambulance Service crew returned to their vehicle to find a note saying: “Warning this is a private parking space next time it will be smashed”.

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