Mijn Klacht:

This letter is a complaint about your ambulance personnel on December 24, 2015 at 14.55. This occurred at Hoofdstraat 67, 2235 cd Valkenburg.
Today at 14:40 pm, my family and I were ready to leave the house for an appointment at 15:15 pm in the Hague. Just before we walked out the door an ambulance pulled in front of our door and parked.
This is a common occurrence. Dr. Wattel has his practice across the street and people continually block our driveway while visiting his office. However, since this was an ambulance we waited 10 minutes to see if the ambulance would leave due to an emergency. There were no emergency lights or sirens so we were unsure.
As the ambulance did not leave I went to the doctor’s office with plans to ask the secretary how long the ambulance would remain. When I entered, I saw one of the ambulance personnel (identifiable by his coat) talking with the doctor’s receptionist. I said twice “excuse me” without any response from this gentleman. I said it a third time and asked if he could back the ambulance up just a bit. He said, without looking at me, “I am busy.” I again said, “If you could move it just a bit then we could get out.” He answered, again without looking at me, “I’m busy, lady. You can wait.” I told him that I had an appointment also, but he ignored me.
I left the doctor’s office. Behind me the other ambulance person walked out. Behind him a woman walked out, and behind her a man. We all walked across the street and I told my husband they said they were busy and I could wait. The ambulance person climbed into the ambulance, the woman climbed into the ambulance, and the man climbed into the ambulance. There was no assistance to any person, no wheelchair, no stretcher, no one even gave an arm to another person. They slide the door shut.
My husband and I began to look to see if there was a way we could get the car out to go to our appointment. We decided to try and work the car out. I said to my husband that I wanted the information from the ambulance to complain to the central office and to ask you not to park in front my driveway when running a call. Particularly since they stopped in a bus stop and had approximately 10 meters of room behind them to park without parking in another vehicle and still right across the street from the doctor. Directly across the street from Dr. Wattel is a full, off road bus stop, then our driveway. The ambulance was parked half in the bus stop and half in our driveway.
I wrote down their number…04 SVJ 8…, asked my husband what time it was…14.55….and walked to my car to get in and try to move the car. My husband and son were going to help me to pull forward, back up, etc.
Just as I reached my door handle I heard one of the ambulance personnel yell to me, “Lady, I have something I want to get off my chest.” I turned around and this man walked into my driveway, up to me and began screaming in my face. He screamed (in English) that he was the emergency personnel. I told him I knew who he was, but this wasn’t an emergency. This I based on the fact that one of the men was talking with the receptionist, one walked out in front of the other two people, no wheelchair, stretcher or any other forms of assistance was offered to anyone. He then, still very aggressive, asked if I was medically trained. I said yes. He yelled it again. I said yes. He then told me I didn’t know what was going on with the woman in the ambulance, and that it was a “felony” to mess with ambulance personnel. I told him if he had enough time to stand here and scream at me then it obviously wasn’t an emergency. Since he was acting aggressively—he was the instigator of this contact—and he was in my driveway, blocking my car so I had nowhere to go, I opened my door and got in my car.
At that point he returned to his ambulance and moved it backward. We left and went to our appointment.
At first I was going to let this behavior pass. But now I think I want to complain about it. I am really shocked that emergency personnel would enter my property, screaming at me, and identifying a medical patient. I would not know if the male or female was a patient, and I would expect him to keep that confidential. Second, if it really was an emergency and he took time to come and scream at me and intimidate me, then he left his patient during an emergency in order to cause a conflict. Third, I do not like to be threatened and intimidated about a felony when I did not say anything to him. He was the person acting aggressively to me, on my property where there was not an emergency.
While I respect emergency personnel, I do not believe driving an ambulance gives him room to act in an aggressive manner, initiate contact, enter my property, and try to bully me. I wrote down the license plate number of the ambulance to write to you. I did not approach him. When he saw me writing he then left the ambulance to come and intimidate me. And this while he had a “patient” waiting for him in the ambulance.
I do not have the name of his man, but he is a smaller man, blonde hair, and my son said he was wearing an earring.
First, I think an apology for this aggressive, intimidating behavior—on my own property–is in order. Second, I would also like to ask that when your ambulance personnel come to pick up patients that they park in the bus stop rather than my driveway. There is more than enough room, and pulling in front of my driveway will still not give the bus room to stop. This request does not change access to Dr. Wattel’s practice.
What is really too bad is that I used to think, when I heard about aggression toward emergency personnel, that people were really out of their mind to mistreat anyone who came to help in emergency situations. But after seeing his fellow, I will now wonder if the emergency personnel initiated it themselves. I find a program of professionalization would not be out of line for this man. Perhaps he does not understand that if he wants respect he should act in a manner worthy of respect?
Sincerely,
Dr. Annette Mosher

Gewenste Oplossing:

With an apology and an agreement the ambulance will use the room at the bus stop to park rather than my driveway.