Walking along the Esplanade late Thursday afternoon I came across a dishevelled man lying alone barely responsive in the middle of the footway.

What to do? I placed him in the recovery position and, getting little or no sense out of him, dialled 999.

The responder's list of questions and instructions was extensive - "We don't know where a King's Statue is; are there any buildings near by? Does he respond, breathing, colour, bleeding, etc. You can give him a drink of water, don't let him drive"

An ambulance car arrived promptly, but the medic's attitude was disturbing.

His immediate and first response, without any check, was: "Where's the emergency then?"

"Well, I found him lying here barely responsive, presumably he's drunk. What was I supposed to do; pass by on the other side?"

To which the response was- "If we came out to every drunk we'd be able to do nothing else"

Now our town, and some of its population do sadly have their problems from time to time. However this response made me wonder why I'd bothered to take a First Aid course recently. So as I said to the ambulance man - if next time it's him I come across lying on the pavement, I shall pass by on the other side.

Martin Figg

Commercial Road

Weymouth