In the 70s and 80s: did people call 999 more?

[wanderings]

Attitudes to emergency services are very different now, especially with cuts to public services. Nowadays the advice is more "don't call 999", rather than "call 999".

Following on from the thread about calling ambulances for broken bones: I was a child of the 80's so I only had the child's perspective on that period. Growing up, I was very lucky in that almost nobody in my family ever needed to go to hospital for anything, right up until my late twenties, so I had very little experience of the process, but I remember so many stories about ambulances being called all the time when children fell off bikes, always calling the police for this and that, and in those days police would be on the street regularly anyway, and doctors made home visits. I remember a lot of what we learned at school about emergency services; they were always there ready to be called, a policeman is your friend, etc. The only advice I remember about not calling 999 was for something that didn't happen, such as calling the fire brigade when there was no fire.

The above may of course have been the simplified, age-appropriate advice: anything wrong, call 999, you learn about appropriate use of public resources later. Was the advice for adults back then always to call 999, or "call a doctor" for lesser things? Nowadays, while something is going wrong before your very eyes, you have to make the careful choice of pharmacist/GP/minor injuries/A&E, and if MN is anything to go by, woe betide you if you get it wrong and waste the wrong public servant's time.

Is one reason we do things differently now because far more of us have cars, and mobile phones, and can more easily get someone to hospital? Is it that we can easily check symptoms on the internet, when we couldn't before? Are we generally more "informed" than before? (I remember my dad calling 999 to complain about a police helicopter that had been overhead for hours one night. Even I knew this wasn't an appropriate use of 999, but I said nothing.)

I do think this is relevant to now in a way, because people who were children in the 80's might now be new parents, and are suddenly faced with the modern ways of getting help, and their only experience might have been what they learned as children. (I expect many people are more likely to call emergency services for children, rather than for themselves.) Somebody who has been healthy all their life, and unfamiliar with hospitals in general, might automatically call 999 if they see a hint of an emergency.

I saw the other thread, and I was thinking the same thing - in my childhood it would have been considered reasonable to call an ambulance for a broken bone.

I suppose there was less they could do for more serious conditions then (heart attack, stroke etc), and fewer people had cars, so ambulance use was quite different.

Interesting - I often look back and think things were just so much... quieter then!
I've just checked the population statistics and there are an extra 10+ million people in Britain than in 1987. Maybe that's it?

I'm 40 and I've always known 999 to only be for emergencies so crime in progress, fire, life threatening illness/injury or potential for life threatening illness/injury.

I can't think of anyone I knew in the 80s who'd call 999 for a non-compound arm fracture.

I was watching one of those ambulance programmes. Forget which one.

But it said more people call them now. Thry thought it was due to drs not doing house calls anymore. Lack of reasources etc.

Plus a generational thing. Old people les likely to call as alot set in their ways/pride/still remember days before nhs etc.

There was no rational behind it other than 2 paramedic blokes just chatting casually. But what they said made sense.

*less

As someone who has experience of working in the ambulance service, I think that in the 70's and 80's, people had more respect and less entitlement.
These days, it's very very much a case of "but I want an ambulance and I don't care if my symptoms aren't life threatening, I'm entitled to one!"

I agree with BlueUggs.

There was more public respect for the NHS and people who work in it. If you worked for the ambulance service, people looked up to you.

Now we have a generation of people who think “ I pay your wages , I demand my rights”.

My paramedic friend says people call them more and for stupider things (people with colds who can’t be bothered walking to the chemist for example).

When I was a child in the 80s the doctor would usually come out to see you at home. They still did that when DS1 (18) was a toddler. He banged his head and the GP did a visit rather than telling us to go to hospital. If I needed A&E we drove there.

Now you call 111 and they send you to A&E for just about anything.

I don't recall anyone calling an ambulance when I were a nipper.

The doctor came when my Mum was ill in the night once, that was mid 80s.

And we had a chimney fire, the fire brigade were called by neighbours as my Dad was trying to put it out. 1976 I think.

I was a child of the 70's. We had no car. We had no house phone until I was 9. I remember when my sister had a suspected broken arm, my Mum shoved her in the push chair and we ran to the local hospital - luckily we lived about 15 minutes away. She hadn't broken it, but still cried every time we went over a bump.

I was quite poorly as a child - weak chest, asthma etc. If I was very poorly, my Mum rang our GP and he would visit me at home. I remember someone coming out to my sister on Christmas Day when she was very ill.

This level of service is not available any more. I can see why people call 999.

However, I think there is also a culture of 'knowing my rights', 'I pay my taxes so it's justified', and 'I'm more important than anyone else'. There is also far less respect for healthcare professionals.

I thought that was why 111 was set up - to stop people calling ambulances when they didnt know what else to do.

My parents refused to get me to hospital when I cracked my head open badly when I was 5, on the grounds it was too far away. Obviously I have survived.

Fewer people had cars, so there might have been times when people called an ambulance because they couldn't drive someone in. Also, fewer people had phones - I knew people who didn't have a phone at home. Having to get to a phone box isn't usually as easy as getting out your mobile phone from your pocket. So I expect people phoned less because it just wasn't as easy.

@redexpat - yes it was but I don't think it works. How are you supposed to triage people over the phone to an algorithm?! The people that ask all the questions aren't medically trained so don't know those words or phrases that make a HCP's blood go cold or set off a bell in your head.
As a paramedic, 111 caused a HUGE surge in our already stupid workload. It was one of the many nails in the coffin for me....

Call volume has massively increased in the 12 years I have been a paramedic, the increase is far greater than can be accounted for by population growth or increasing average age of three population.

Talking to staff who are coming up retirement, they only ever used to do "genuine" jobs and "bad" jobs.

Now our role, job descriptions, and training are being changed to reflect the fact that the majority of our work is low acuity (non life threatening, mental health, social problems, chronic conditions).

I think there are a lot of things going on. Yes to the entitlement thing. Also though (and I'm not an expert, I've just seen the programmes on telly) a lot of the callers have mental health issues. In the 70s or 80s, many of them would have been "institutionalised" or at least not living independently with access to a phone to make repeated calls. Similarly for older people - they'd either have died, or be in hospital/old folks home. There are also 10 million more of us in the UK than there were in around 1980.

Not sure but In the 70s lots of people didn’t have a phone or didn’t drive. I think everything is more accessible now with mobiles and the internet.

ageing population will likely impact ambulance service I wonder if that is in any long term plans anywhere

(No)

However, back in the day ambulance/ police / fire 999 were emergency only do that wasn't different.

Part of it may be that there are fewer ways of getting help and people try this that and the other and in the end dial 999 because they don't know what else to do. I mean help from a person who can actually help iyswim

I don't recall anyone calling an ambulance in the 70's or 80's. We didn't even have a house phone until 1980. I do remember the doctor coming to the house though.

Back then, there were no paramedics and ambulance personnel were basically just men who would cart you off to hospital. No delays or complicated handover at the other end. They had some first aid knowledge, but treatment and stabilisation of the patient wasn't the priority.

Accessing medical help now is quite complicated so I can see why people have difficulties. The pharmacist advised me to call 111 or go to the eye hospital because I had an eye infection about two weeks ago. Ridiculous. I had to send dh in to another pharmacy and try there instead. I'm a hcp I know what I need to do to help myself.

I've actually been carted off by Ambulance 3 times in the last 25 years or so and I'm late 40's. Each time I'd fainted but had been unconscious for so long that people with me have had to call an ambulance as it's not actually that easy to lift an 11 - 12 stone unconscious woman and safely transport them yourself. Each time I haven't come around until I've been in the hospital. Once I was ill and my temperature went so high they made me spend the afternoon in a bed just covered with a sheet and underwear with fans blowing on me. Twice my heart rate wouldn't stabilise so I was held at the hospital for several hours until it did. Nothing majorly wrong with me on any occasion but worrying for other around me. I fainted several times at school and despite banging my head badly each time an ambulance was never called!

Mumsnet won't call an ambulance unless an arm is falling off and even then... friends son is a paramedic and ambulances get called like taxis sometimes I think as a pp said lack of housecalls and having the reassurance makes people phone ambulances imo. I can't remember anybody phoning an ambulance growing up.

I'm in my early fifties and when I was small, we didn't have a phone and my mum didn't drive (divorced, no dad around). Up to the age of 8 I lived in a community that had fabulous neighbours but I'm sure there was only one person with a phone! She was happy for people to use it in an emergency though.

The lack of house calls by doctors is the most shocking to me. We have a GP in the family and I remember them going out on Christmas Day. We used to arrange weekend events around their on-call rota. Then they moved to an arrangement between surgeries so they had fewer on-call shifts but they were longer and often at a central point. They were still responsible for cover though. I can't believe how much it has changed!

Indeed - the role of the ambulance service has changed. It used to be they were "scoop and drive" quick as possible to hospital. Their training was fairly basic. Not the high level of training they get these days.

Also agree to not everyone having a phone.

In rural areas it was common for the doctor never to be off duty really, people could call on the doctor at any time and the doctor would come out. My uncle was the only doctor in a small village and was constantly getting called to various medical issues. Now, GPs don't do that so people call an ambulance.

If you are not well you phone Nhs direct you wait for a call back then you might need to get yourself /somebody to out of hours surgery tbh I can see why folk panic and phone an ambulance.

I remember being about 8 (very early 80's) and calling an ambulance as a friend had fallen (from a great height) off a swing in the park, was unconscious and bleeding from the head. I ran to a pay phone to call. The ambulance hadn't turned up 30 minutes later so I ran home and my mum called them. Turns out they had thought my call was a prank.

I think that sometimes people aren't treated correctly when they initially go to A&E and are left with very worrying symptoms, so that l the next time it happens an ambulance is called again.