Bloody 111

[iamme21]

DS 19 has had the lurgy for a week. Since Friday night cough has got increasingly worse. Lunchtime today, he can't stop coughing, is breathless, wheezy, has pains in his chest when he breathes. I rang 111 to try and get an OOH doctors appointment. I spoke to them , DS spoke to them. Because he said he had chest pain they sent an ambulance.

Crew were amazing, checked him over thoroughly, think he has pleurisy. They were happy to get him an appointment with OOH rather than take him to the hospital.

They have sat in the ambulance outside my house for over 90 minutes. At 5.40 they came back to the house, got DS an appointment at 6.

What a waste of time, no wonder the NHS is broken,

Why did they sit outside your house for 90 minutes????

And you sound a bit ungrateful if I'm honest. Imagine if you are discussing the reverse (DS was very poorly and no-one attended to him)

Waiting to get a call back from OOH

I'm not ungrateful at all! I just think its ridiculous that you have to get an ambulance crew to get a doctors appointment. I feel guilty that the crews time was wasted when they could have been on more urgent calls.

I've never heard of an ambulance waiting??? Odd. 111 could have just called you?

However what I don't understand is that you called for help and recieved help but you are pissed off about it?

Chest pain and breathing difficulties could be heart attack. Absolutely correct to send an ambulance. Paramedics ruled out cardiac symptoms and now are trying to prevent hospital admission. Absolutely correct procedure and will ultimately save the NHS money. YABU.

I'm not pissed off I received help, I just think the system is really inefficient.

I know someone who works in the ambulance service and the protocol is to stay until OOhH service calls back.

I'm not complaining about DS' s treatment, he got to stay comfortable at home, and the crew who attended were amazing (as I said in my OP)

My post was trying to highlight the level of waste in the system.

what's a waste of time? he got seen by the ambulance crew, maybe because of his symptoms, what would you have liked to have happened.

We were once sent an ambulance because our DS had fallen over as they were afraid he might have fallen on his head even though we told them he hadn't. We told them we could actually drive him to the hospital ourselves in 15 minutesbut they were adamant it was an emergency that only an ambulance could deal with. Fine I am no expert. Ended up waiting for two hours for the ambulance to come. Noone at any stage (ambulance or hospital) checked his head.

Unfortunately if a patient presents with chest pain and breathlessness, a telephone triage system will never be able to rule out life threatening conditions. Each service has erred on the side of caution for which you should be grateful that you got such thorough care.

Next time go to A&E, will save an ambulance being sent.

Do you not think 90 minutes waiting for a call back is a waste of ambulance time?

I think you would all up be up in arms waiting for a crew while they were sitting outside my house.

I just think the old sytem of OOH doctors was more cost/time efficient.

If I thought in anyway DS was having a cardiac incident I would have called 999 not 111

I understand OP, not sure why people are being dicks about it. 90 mins for an ambulance to be tied up waiting for a phone call on your behalf IS ridiculous.

I get that your are grateful for the medical assistance and your post is clear that your are shocked at the crew sitting outside your house for 90mins, not that the ambulance was sent, it could have been asthma attack.
I completely agree with you,surely 111 could have dealt with the out of hours appointment and they could have been seeing someone else who could have been struggling, such a waste of time and expertise.

what was the old system of ooh doctors? I would expect an ambulance to be called by 111 if someone had breathing difficulties and chestpain.

I think the OP is actually pretty clear that she is concerned about the waste of the ambulance crew's time, not her own so why people are jumping on her for being 'ungrateful' I don't know.

I agree that it is not good use of a paramedic's time to have to spend 1.5h basically doing admin in order to get a doctor's appointment.

111 tried to send an ambulance for me once for chest pain (which I knew was the same as I usually experience with a bad chest infection - I just needed to go through 111 for the OOH appointment). I refused the ambulance but was warned that that meant they would have to mark my file with the fact I'd refused an ambulance.

111 are useless and I say this as a HCP!
They have no clinical training and just follow an algorithm on their screen. Certain words that you say trigger the dispatch of a 999 Ambulance. It's a complete waste. Whilst they were with you they would have had category 1 calls waiting (cardiac arrests).
Hope your son recovers soon

Thanks @grenadezombie, I’m glad someone does.
His care was great, it’s the waste in the system that frustrates me.

Thanks for the supportive posts.

DS saw the ooh doctor, pleurisy, antibiotics and steroids. Done and dusted in ten minutes.

Maybe the problem is that there are not enough out of hours doctors and GPs don't do home visits anymore, our local hospitals have gp services and out of hours clinics at the weekends.

Possibly

Same thing happened to my niece (asthma ) and an elderly aunt ( ran out of prescribed meds). In both cases the ambulance and crew waited hours with them until they were seen by the OOH dr. We couldn't believe it and I agree it seems a bizarre waste of resource but then again it must make some sense or why would they do it?

I get it. We got sent an ambulance for our 6 week old when he had bronchiolitis. While I fully understand they have protocols, especially for babies, it was a bit embarrassing because while he needed A&E he did not need an ambulance and we could easily have driven there ourselves

I agree OP, they are far too cavalier with sending ambulances and keeping them hanging around
An elderly neighbour got mixed up and took 2 days of medication one morning. Local pharmacist and GP both confirmed that the only way to hurt yourself with this drug was to hit yourself over the head with the box but meanwhile her relative arrived then rang 111 for a third opinion and they sent an ambulance out. GP was furious!

Blimey @Xuli

Your 6 week old baby had an illness that causes breathing difficulties and you are bemoaning an ambulance being sent?

OP, I didn't realise the ambulance had to wait for the 111 to make an appointment. This is indeed ludicrous. Please escalate your experience and opinion as high as you can.... it needs to be addressed.