It is to our shame that we treat paramedics this way

WHO knows when one of us will need to call an ambulance when someone close to us is taken seriously ill. After the call you wait, each moment an eternity. And how reassuring it is when the paramedics arrive with their know-how, their specialist equipment and their words of comfort.

In a medical emergency every second counts which is why an ambulance had to make a stop in a narrow street in Runcorn, Cheshire, on Sunday. And what happened? A driver who was briefly inconvenienced raged and swore at the driver calling her a “f***ing idiot”.

What kind of country have we become where people are so lacking in self-awareness and any sense of civic decency that they think this kind of behaviour is acceptable?

There was another incident too. This one in Birmingham. Someone who found their drive blocked by an ambulance attending a nearby home left a note on the windscreen saying: “You may be saving lives but don’t park your van in a stupid place and block my drive”.

Sadly the person who was being treated later died and his family says that the cruel note left on the ambulance has made his death “50 times worse”.

Welcome to our supremely selfish society where nobody cares for anyone’s suffering and where every individual always puts him or herself first. Welcome to modern Britain.