Does this apply ro public sectors everywhere?

[woolybanana]

My experience of the public sector in France and Belgium as well as of the UK FE education sector a few years ago says that the description of some (only 'some', please note) of the workers is absolutely right. Being a prophet in his own land seems to have got the guy into trouble which is a pity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-10749755

[Quillan]

The truth always hurts. Did you look at the other articles associated with this one like....

Yorkshire ambulance response times 'must improve' (dated March 2010)

and

Yorkshire ambulance call response 'England's worst' (dated June 2010)

I liked the comment at the end of the last link "(Ambulance) Response times are not the only way we measure the improvements to patient care." Try telling somebody having a heart attack etc.

But in answer to your question, when I had a near fatal heart attack in the UK the hospital (which is the one I was taken to) is only 2 minutes away by car yet it took 35 minutes to get an ambulance to me even though they knew I was having a heart attack. In France the hospital is 3km away, when one of our guests collapsed (nothing to do with my cooking I might add) the ambulance arrived in about 10 minutes or less.