Sadly Hugh, the service now is more concerned with f..king figures - patients, oh yes, I'm sure they still feature somewhere in the great scheme of things, but some days you do have to wonder where. If we could rid ourselves of everyone who thought it was their damn right to call for an ambulance "because I pay taxes" "theres no where to park at the hospital" "my doctors shut" "I can't be bothered to get off my rrrrse to go down the chemist"........blah blah blah, there'd be a far better service for the genuinely needy cases. Until then we're preoccupied in trying to speed up response times, knit extra ambulances to deal with the wasters Here endeth the whinge