‘Who’d be a hero when you have to pay for it?’
Wednesday 17th December 2008, 2:30PM GMT.
Dominic Canty-Forrest outside the building that still shows the scars of the October arson attack. He is holding the bills for £286 that his have-a-go rescue mission left him with. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0690364)
A FORMER fireman who risked his life to save others got two bills for his trouble.
Dominic Canty-Forrest, 50, saved two people from a flat above Sitar Indian Restaurant during October’s spate of arson attacks.
The street-level door of the flat had been set alight and smoke had filled the upper floors. He was told to go to hospital to check that he had not inhaled too much – and has now received a bill for £126 from Rohais Health Centre and another for £160 from the Ambulance and Rescue Service.
‘I just can’t understand the morality,’ he said. ‘I find it appalling that you can put yourself on the line to help others and then you get charged for it.’
Dr Brian Parkin, of the Health Care Group, said: ‘In recognition of the letter and the situation, we halved the charge as a gesture of goodwill.’
The Ambulance and Rescue Service was unavailable for comment.
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Dr Parkin
Don’t be such a scrooge. Write off all the bill.
Same applies to the Ambulance service.
Use your common sense guys.
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No bill should ever have been sent. Just for once show a little compassion, do you remember what that was, Guernsey Doctors – that is before you became business practitioners instead of general practitioners?
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What a cheek charging him!
Then again, what about the people he saved?
Without him they wouldn’t be around at all, maybe they should break open their own piggy banks?
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Remember this episode next time the Ambulance Service hold a fund raising event or the Health Centre asks for help.
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The moral of the story is to ensure that you buy an ambulance subscription (it is very reasonable) and perhaps health insurance. We all know that in Guernsey we have to pay for doctors and the ambulance and it is our choice as to whether to get insured or not. The ambulance service is not paid for by taxes and is a charity i believe – therefore they have to charge and they do advertise this.
Was this man perhaps not aware of the system here? Was he warned of the charges he was going to incur before he got in the ambulance? Did he really need to go to hospital (he is an ex-fireman so surely he would know if he had breathing problems or not!
It does seem an extortionate amount of money though – how is that worked out????
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The man is a hero and should be given a pat on the back not a ruddy bill for risking his life. For goodness sake – whats the world coming to ! Lets just hope that these money pinching practices wont stop future heroes from jumping in and helping !
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Hope Santa don’t come down their chimney and get stuck !
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Sounds like some kind of sick joke to me! A bill for saving lives….? How very sad.
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outrageous!
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Well said Alistair Grant – I couldn’t agree more.
Come on guys, write this one off !!
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You would think all these groups would have reciprical arrangements … Oh well Dr Parkin if a fire breaks out in you house or surgery… who you gonna call …
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I can’t believe that this doctor and the St. John Ambulance have charged this guy! And what ‘gesture of goodwill’? Don’t add insult to injury.
If it was me I’d let them take me to petty debts for the money, just to see what would happen then.
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Why oh why are we forced to pay for the Ambulance Service. We give £1m plus to the ambulance service and in addition we are forced to either enter into a subscription scheme or take the risk and end up paying a bill.
Why, as an island, are we reliant on a charity such as St John Ambulance to have to provide one of our vital services.
If we had to pay or take out a subscription to call out the Police of Fire Brigade people would be up in arms so why do we tolerate this with the Ambulance and Rescue Service?
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Latest betting on the Bailiwick of Guernsey Scrooge of the Year Awards. The book is now closed on the Barclay Brothers (they’re the runaway winners) but Dr Parkin and the Chief Ambulance Officer are now neck and neck joint favourites for the runner up prize!
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Yes it does seem unfair, but then the system is unfair to all of us. The ambulance service isn’t free. Seeing a GP in A&E isn’t free. It’s the same for everybody.
There is a strong case that the States should cover the costs in these circumstances, but I don’t see why a charity ( St John’s ) or a private business ( which is what a GP surgery is ) should have too.
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Good question ‘a real guern’. I wasn’t aware that the ambulance service received £1 million pounds a year. Perhaps you are right but to my knowledge they receive a grant from the States (nowhere near enough to keep the service running) and the rest is funded by charity.
I wonder what happens to visitors who get transported to hospital after calling an ambulance perhaps believing the system is the same as in the NHS. Do they get sent a bill. Do they have to sign to say they will pay – like we have to sign at the doctors? I believe the reciprocal agreement is no more so this raises another question.
I think this is a good time to ask why our emergency ambulance service is not funded by the States like the police and the fire brigade.
I do think there should be some contingency plans for people who are injured doing people a favour but no doubt the bills are generated by a computer automatically and the human aspect has disappeared. This island is increasingly being run as a business and the Guernsey of old has long gone.
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What sort of place is Guensey. You flush raw sewerage into the sea, you have to pay £160 for a ambulance (wouldn’t a taxi be cheaper), and a hospital as a gesture of good will will only take 50% off the cost for someone who risked his life to save others. I suprised the restaurant didn’t charge him for forcing the door open.
What a sad place you live in.
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I think it is about time the Ambulance service was nationalised – it is one of the three essential emergency services (Fire, police, ambulance) and as A real Guern pointed out above we shouldn’t have to rely on a charity to run it.
Of course this would cost public money however on this occasion if that means higher social security payments to cover the costs then so be it. I don’t mind paying a little extra for something worthwhile that benefits everyone.
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Wasn’t it the case that he ambulance would have been sent to the scene with the other services.
This man acted selflessly to save others.
In essence this man is being stung £160 for a lift up the hill. Thats an expensive journey indeed.
Message to St Johns. I hope that this is a case of a computer generated billing oversight. It is time this Island showed some respect to people of this nature.
How about a bit of compassion then SJA.
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I agree with Paul le P, the service should be nationalised and I for one would be happy to pay extra Social secuirty to fund it, ALTHOUGH it would need to be run properly and not by 100 civil servants with systems to hide behind!
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OK. I have done a bit of delving. St Johns is voluntary and is comprised of volunteers doing first aid i.e at fetes etc: Ambulance and Rescue is the emergency service as we know it and they are the ones that receive something from the States but I don’t know how much. It is a very emotive subject as anyone requiring an emergency ambulance in a serious situation (i.e. for car crashes and heart attacks) will also have a fair argument for not being charged. The subscription is no doubt only peanuts compared to the cost of it becoming a States Body but if the public want that then perhaps we should make it an election issue? There is a big problem with the credit crunch and money is just not there for extra services and the emergency ambulance service has coped well in the past under the current system – providing people take out the subscription. I agree that if it becomes public sector property there will no doubt be layers and layers of bureaucracy involved and a whole new management and accounting package. Do we really want that? What we need is a bit of common sense. This bill could easily have been written off by both parties completely instead of it being blown all out of proportion.
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