Help! 4 hours waiting for ambulance

[Bonnynorton2]

DF has fallen and broken his hip. He has dementia. He has been lying in pain for probably about 7 hours at at home.His carer found him 4 hours ago and called an ambulance. They are still waiting. The carer has been unable to visit other people he cares for or go home. I live 5 hours away. If I had known the wait would be that long I would have left immediately. Any suggestions about what I can do? DF lives in Dorset and I live in London.

There is no public transport which would reach his village after 3pm from London. A taxi all the way costs £200 and in any case I expected he would be taken to hospital which I can reach quite easily from London but I don’t know Which hospital. It made sense to wait and see where the ambulance would take him. But there has been no ambulance.

Could you try phoning the local A & E that he will be taken to, and ask them to chase transport as you are out of the area?

A&E won’t be able to chase an ambulance, it’s the ambulance service that allocates them, not A&E

As to your original question OP, there is nothing you can do, apart from start drafting a letter of complaint to your fathers local MP.

The suggestions of a private ambulance are well meaning but completely unrealistic, and your chances of getting one out at this time, in a presumably rural area are slim to none.

Burlea
Totally unhelpful post.

This happened to my mum. We waited six hours when she fell. The paramedics were distraught but were unable to get to us sooner.

Goodness I hope they turn up soon.
Whereabouts in Dorset is he?

This is dreadful.
To be fair I don’t think there is much you can do, and going there wouldn’t be all that helpful either really.

The health service in this country needs so much more funding. I hope all people reading this thread recall this when they go to vote.

I'm so sorry to hear this. I'm afraid this is not unusual any more. We've had similar threads before.

I think you'll feel the need to be there when he is in hospital- I understand you not going immediately- you'd wait for news from the hospital so you can plan. But given how long the news is going to be, I think you ne3d to arrange to get there in the meantime. There is a high chance he will need to go into a nursing home once his hospital stay is resolved.

Calling back and citing chest pain is a shit shit thing to do. I’m a paramedic. If they’re not there yet it’s because they can’t get there yet. It’s not that they’re sitting idle down the road having a laugh.

OP I feel for your poor DF. Hope he gets help soon x

Totally unhelpful and unnecessary, Burlea

OP, have you phoned and asked for an update? Please do keep chasing. We once had a potential 3 hour wait with my DC and they were totally honest about this, you need to know what's going on and the facts. Plus, there's human error and it's possible that it wasn't flagged as a priority.

If the carer gives you the reference number you can phone the ambulance service and ask for an update. When you call 999 you would just need to explain it is for an existing case in X area, so you don't get transferred to your local centre.

All I can suggest is that the carer (or you) updates the ambulance service if your dad deteriorates in any way, eg if he is more confused/ drowsy/ dehydrated.

It's awful that the ambulance service is so overstretched. Sadly very long waits like this do harm patients. Please do write to the MP of your dad's area and explain that the ambulance service is under-resourced.

Is there anyone at all local to your dad who can wait with him to relieve the carer? Anyone? Because she may need to get home herself.

Tell her to ring back and say he’s chest his hurting now

And people like you are probably why hes still waiting for an ambulance.

Bloody shocking advice

OP is the ambulance service calling regularly with updates and asking how he is?

Sadly this is standard now. The ambulance service is falling apart, too many people requiring the service with not enough staff. Although it’s concerning and worrying for you, your DF won’t be classed as an emergency so hence the wait.

Cherry Your bang out of order. How dare you try and take an ambulance away from a potential life or death situation. As PP said cite your bloody source!

Update. Ambulance has now taken him to hospital. In answer to posters wondering why I didn't go there or informing me I should visit him in hospital.

1. Yes of course now that I know which hospital he has been taken to I will get the first train at 5 tomorrow morning and stay there to be with him and sort out his care
2. I didn't go there this afternoon because as I said before he lives in a very rural area with more or less no public transport. My only option would have been a £200 taxi which might likely have got there to an empty house. The hospital is 30 miles from his house and again no transport. It made sense to wait and see where he was being taken.

DF lives alone in a rural area by 'choice' I would be very happy indeed but if he lived with us or in residential care somewhere. But he doesn't want to and nobody can do anything about that. I am consequently constantly having to travel long distances or sort out emergencies from a distance. Not my choice.

My dad also has dementia and fell and broke his hip last year. The accident happened around lunchtime, the ambulance came about 10pm. We waited with him in A&E until a bed was available, he wasn't on the ward until 4am.
I'd read in the media about the NHS/ Social Care crisis but you don't realise how utterly shit the whole system is until you're caught up in it.

I'm glad he's been collected.

Don't feel bad about being unable to get there. It is what it is.

@Bonnynorton I'm glad he's on his way. He will either be I. Theatre tonight or so heavily medicated that he can rest before his op tomorrow. In fact if you can get an update in case he's in for surgery first thing....in which case there maybe no need to rush in. Good luck. I hope he recovers well.

Glad to hear the ambulance arrived beat of luck for your journey tomorrow I hope you're DF has a speedy recovery 🤞🏻

Glad to hear he's been collected.
I want to urge OP not to feel guilty. U didn't do anything wrong. I hope tomorrow goes as well as it can for you.

I think given the tardiness, were it my father I’d be getting him moved up the list

So you think it’s fine to get him moved up the list at the expense of other patients?

Ambulance has a careful triage process. They don’t allocate based on what relatives demand, or what your last name is, or on whether staff have had lunch yet.

Allocation is based on need. So if it’s a 4 hour wait it’s because more patients have a greater need. Bumping someone up the list by whatever means means someone in greater need gets bumped down.

I'm interested to hear its in Dorset - I think that is under the South-Western Ambulance service.

Last Autumn an elderly relative of mine had a fall and broke her hip. 88 yr old out of doors, rural area, extreme pain, in the rain, in November. It was just lucky that a passer by spotted her and was willing to stay with her until another relative could be there.

They waited 6hrs outside in the rain for an ambulance, trying to keep her warm with quilts under a tarpaulin and umbrellas. But because she wasn't unconscious she was "low priority". I subsequently suspected it also had a lot to do with her age.

Family were told there was a series of "exceptional events" that day and assumed that is was true. Like you OP they didn't want to say she was unconscious when she wasn't, they trusted the wait was due to even more urgent cases. They were told it was a "freak event" that day.

By the time she got to hospital she was an 87yr old with hypothermia as well as the broken hip.

We subsequently discovered numerous other "freak events" of elderly people in this situation in that region. The region is either woefully under funded (quite credible) but also with a prioritisation model in which age is a negative factor.

Another time they will say she is drifting in and out of consciousness. Its not the right thing to do but nor is it right to leave an 87yr old with a broken hip out in the rain in November for 6hrs.

Thanks all.

And one more thing. This wasn't the reason for my OP but please do not vote conservative in the next election. This was a RL example of the realities of austerity. An 89 year old man lying on the floor with a broken hip for 8 hours. A man who paid into the system all his life.

Unfortunately this is not unusual. They will have triaged him and got to him as quickly as they can - the ambulances will have been constantly running, they don’t just sit around waiting as some people seem to be insinuating! Cases like this are what people should be mindful of when they waste ambulance services time.

Thank you C8. I don't think my DF's situation is unusual sadly. I suspect it happens every day all over the country with each individual family thinking they have been uniquely unfortunate.