The job was different every day, you never knew what you were walking into
PIONEERING PARAMEDIC LOOKS BACK ON HIS CAREER AS HE RETIRES AFTER 42 YEARS
CAR crashes, football matches and women giving birth were once all in a day’s work for paramedic Patrick McFadden.
He was among those who responded to the IRA bombing in 1996 and the Manchester Arena terror attack in 2017.
And on one New Year’s Eve shift, he delivered baby twins.
“That was an experience,” he laughs.
It’s a job Patrick, known to most as Pat, is saying goodbye to as he retires after 42 years in the NHS and North West Ambulance Service (NWAS).
Pat, 59, was among the first three paramedics in the north west in 1987 after joining the NHS as an ambulance driver.
Working for the ambulance service always appealed to him.
“It was always very high profile,” he says. “When you saw an ambulance heading out with its blue lights and sirens, it grabbed your attention.
“One of the great privileges is the high esteem people hold you in.
“It’s tangible when you go out. It’s one of those services that absolutely fascinates people.
“People want to know about what you do and they respect what you do.”
Both the ambulance service and NHS have changed beyond recognition during Pat’s time.
There are far fewer hospitals in Greater Manchester, for example and the role of the paramedic is now much more complex.
Rather than transporting patients to an A&E unit down the road, paramedics must assess and treat patients before taking them to one of 10 emergency departments in the region.
“When I first started a lot of patients were of the post-war mentality,” explains Pat.
“Very stoic and not keen to make a fuss. These days there’s an expectation to have things quickly.
“Yet the work of the health service is far more complex. We’re a growing population and our elderly population is much bigger.
“We offer a huge array of services and we’ve also lived through the advent of the internet.
“All of these things put incredible pressure on services.
“Meeting the public’s expectation is tough.”
Pat, from Chorlton, has loved serving his home city and has watched it transform over the years.
As a paramedic, he’s been part of the frontline responding to Manchester’s best and darkest days.
He remembers clearly the devastation after the IRA bombed the Arndale in 1996.
“It was surreal. Although there were not a huge amount of casualties, the structural devastation was quite shocking. It was something I never thought I’d see.” And then in May 2017, Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena.
Pat was working at a management level by then, but as soon as he heard the reports on social media, he went straight into work.
“Post-atrocity I couldn’t have been more proud of Manchester,” he adds. “The way people reacted, they refused to let it break them or define them. It was a privilege to be part of.”
Pat, who retired as head of services, was heavily involved in NWAS’ preparation for the Commonwealth Games in 2002, an event which he says transformed east Manchester.
“It was probably one of the best things that ever happened to the city,” he said. His job has also given him the perfect opportunity to work with his beloved Manchester City as command leader on matchdays.
“It’s always been an incredibly diverse patch to work on,” he adds.
“One minute you’d be in a place of high opulence and then next you’d be in a place of extreme social deprivation.
“You never really get bored.” Pat, a dad-of-two, plans to spend his retirement learning a language, travelling and working as a patient representative.
When I first started patients were of the postwar generation – not keen to make a fuss
Paramedic Patrick McFadden