Good samaritan mobile app - what do you guys think?

Glaucus said:
This isn't America. Not yet anyway. A British caught would chuck it out. Unless you didn't something massively stupid.

It's a great idea. But the fact it looks like nine if us have heard off it, makes it a bit pointless. It would need to be supported by the emergency services and have an add campaign etc.

However great idea of it took off.
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Not to mention the fact that in many European countries it can be a crime not to help. Not sure if that's the case in the UK or not mind you.

Efour said:
It sounds like a very good idea on paper but I'm sure it will have some legal pitfalls and backlash the first time someone tries to say negligent first aid was offered.
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Europe has Good Samaritan Laws in place to prevent torts arising from situations like that, though in reality of course it might fall short.
 
To clear one part up. We don't have a Good Samaritan law in this country although professionals do have a duty of care to act appropriately with acts or omission of acts. Eg in a road accident then for many staff ringing 999 is enough. To date no-one has successfully sued someone in court due to action however we suspect there have been several out of court settlements. Note also that the need to defend oneself would be costly and the courts would most likely not expect the losing party to cover that cost.

Do I really want to be called out a lot not really. I think whilst this is a laudable idea I'd want nothing to do with it. I'd rather people were taught some basic skills at school and that we had decent provision. I'd question the usefulness of what people could do without proper equipment too and benefit of people never being "off-duty" or the people this may attract who like to overstep their capability. Also if one didn't answer the call then would they be deemed to have broken their professional code by omission of act. My opinion of course.
 
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It would make more sense for the app to be run by the government & it's effectiveness measured via trails to determine if it's a good idea overall or not.
 
elmarko said:
It would make more sense for the app to be run by the government & it's effectiveness measured via trails to determine if it's a good idea overall or not.
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I don't think anything would make more sense in having the government run an IT project :p.
 
Actually I've had a real good look at their site and there are some real problems with the information they are giving out. Reading it all I've gone from a position of not for me to actually this is pretty irresponsible and not at all well thought through. It will in all likelihood attract the wrong sort of people and the potential for a serious incident is very high.
 
I think the point of it (I may have misunderstood it) was that anyone registered who is near an incident can respond if they are able to to get first aid asap to the person in need rather than replace first aid knowledge which is why they ask for first aiders nurses and doctors and other medically trained people to sign up. It sits on your phone until triggered in case of emergency. Of course it is all pro bono but it could work to help improve first aid to people no? I don't think it is designed to replace emergency services just get first aid to the person asap. I may be wrong! Anyway the way it was explained in the news seemed pretty cool to me!
 
I saw this a while ago but didn't sign up in the end as they wanted to verify my identity by sending a copy of my warrant card (which wasn't going to happen), so whilst I think it's a good idea, I can't register. Shame really as I get retested every year by seldom chance to use it in anger.

For those saying that their first aid qualification has expired, it's important to keep up-to-date as my training has changed a lot just in the last 4-5 years.
 
Freefaller said:
I think the point of it (I may have misunderstood it) was that anyone registered who is near an incident can respond if they are able to to get first aid asap to the person in need rather than replace first aid knowledge which is why they ask for first aiders nurses and doctors and other medically trained people to sign up. It sits on your phone until triggered in case of emergency. Of course it is all pro bono but it could work to help improve first aid to people no? I don't think it is designed to replace emergency services just get first aid to the person asap. I may be wrong! Anyway the way it was explained in the news seemed pretty cool to me!
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In that case I share all the concerns that Xordium has expressed above. Especially given how varied the skill level can be in 'First Aiders'. I know people who regularly volunteer for St. Andrews First Aid who I would trust to manage an out of hospital emergency better than a lot of nurses and doctors I know at least until an ambulance crew arrive* but I also speak to work place First Aiders who did a 1 day course 2 years ago who think they know everything but do silly and potentially dangerous things, like moving patients with traumatic injuries.


* not a criticism of those nurses and doctors. Why should a cardiac rehab nurse need to know about to to assess a scene or danger. Or about multi causality triage.
 
That's a fair criticism, I know personally I wouldn't tackle a problem I didn't think I'd be able to help but offer whatever assistance I could. I just think that this sort of innovative use of technology to help enhance a network of "helpers" could potentially lead to a lot of positive effects long term?

Heck even if it is just a minor injury like a broken wrist, having someone nearby pop over until the ambulance comes to offer a bit of reassurance and comfort and a little bit of training can make a big difference.

Of course the danger lies in that people don't bother responding, and false alerts, so people just switch off. Or they assume that someone else will get to it. I guess there is also an issue of data and privacy... However, I'd like to think that most people would be willing to offer help and if someone is nearby with training surely they would add more value than remove?

I don't know - I thought it was a clever concept, and it seems to be growing. It pricked my interest and being a bunch of tech-savy and worldly-wise group of people here I was interested in the opinions, and it brings up a lot of things I didn't really consider. :)
 
Freefaller said:
I think the point of it (I may have misunderstood it) was that anyone registered who is near an incident can respond if they are able to to get first aid asap to the person in need rather than replace first aid knowledge which is why they ask for first aiders nurses and doctors and other medically trained people to sign up. It sits on your phone until triggered in case of emergency. Of course it is all pro bono but it could work to help improve first aid to people no? I don't think it is designed to replace emergency services just get first aid to the person asap. I may be wrong! Anyway the way it was explained in the news seemed pretty cool to me!
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Yes that is it and it's not intended to replace. However, let's look at this logically:

1) Despite what their site says equipment will make the difference. Skills without the requisite kit is pointless. The suggested items of kit include things that 99% of practitioners should not be using. Who governs the quality control of this kit? Where does the kit come from NHS supplies appropriately or appropriated? Expiry dates - suitable and checked etc.
2) If a call is refused then a) the person acknowledges there is an emergency then b) declines to help. This is actually against the codes of conduct. By act or omission of act causing harm.
3) The people with the requisite skillset to actually be useful are actually a very small number of nurses, doctors, ancillary professions. Most people will be no more use than a relative. Most doctors and nurses can't even find a pulse in an emergency. The people with the skillset to be useful work long hard hours - they need downtime or they will burn out.
4) If the situation is not that critical then the ambulance arriving in 15 mins in irrelevant and the situation could be supported by a neighbour or family member.
5) If the situation is critical then unless you've got the kit you're just wasting your time. Statistics back that up.

What really needs to happen is a concerted effort for everybody to be able to respond to the time critical events that we can all help with eg choking etc. This is actually a big nasty lawsuit waiting to happen and I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. The people that will touch it though are most likely the ones you don't actually want near it.
 
I agree that getting everyone up to a basic level of first aid. What would be great is if people were to stop recording events on their phones and actually help. Empowering people to feel like they can do something is a lot better than the head in the sand behaviour that currently goes on.
 
The problem though is it's all well and good training people what to do - actually having the presence of mind to do it is another thing. Memory retention is pretty poor too, for example, they've shown even with health professionals BLS training is rapidly forgotten after 6 weeks.

I guess my really big concern is that this will attract the wrong kind of people. The one's who don't know their limitations but like the 'action' and the 'attention'. Like that lad who went to Africa 18 months after qualifying to mess around with ebola. No way he had the skillset to do that and now he's a hero but really he just put a hell of a lot of people at risk and cost us a massive amount of money. It's about knowing what you don't know.
 
The problem is that brings in the other points I thought of. I am sure Hikari and Minstadave will come along and say it is a remarkable idea and I am being a prat worrying about such things.
 
You're not being a prat, the whole point of these forums is it covers so many different angles of perception and understanding - if you don't challenge understanding and facts you never make progress in life/society/etc... :)
 
I'm with Xordium on this, brought up basically what i was thinking earlier .

This scheme should have some 'officialness' to it, not a 3rd party app.
 
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