Any paramedics or people who understand ambulance response categories?

[twinklespells]

Does anyone know what category a call could be classed as if someone is struggling to catch their breath and the handler decides they need an ambulance?

My sibling died last week and I'm trying to prepare myself for whether they may have been alone without help for a long time. Someone has told me that because he rang himself and was conscious, it probably wasn't classed as urgent

[twinklespells]

Thank you, this has been helpful. Have contacted PALS.

[Akire]

Cruise charity have a phone help line and a chat online function. It’s not long term counselling but more bereavement first aid

www.cruse.org.uk/get-help/helpline

[3littlemonkeys82]

Ambulance controller here. Contact your ambulance service pals team. They can audit the call and ensure the correct level of response was processed. They can also check that the call recieved a response in the quickest possible time as literally everything is recorded. We can retrospectively see what each nearest ambulance was doing, how many cases were outstanding, the average response time etc.
Breathing problems tend to be cat 2 response which is 18 minutes.
Sometimes cat 3 which the aim is within 1 hour.
However, obviously times are difficult and in many places these targets aren't being met because demand is simply outstripping supply.
Personally I have had category 3 calls recently that have taken 10 hours to reach. It's a very stressful job at the minute.
We do however ensure there are regular welfare calls where we can assess and upgrade if a patients condition has deteriorated.
I'm very sorry to hear about your sibling.

[4Mongrels]

I’m sorry for your loss

[twinklespells]

Thank you both. I fear covid may also have impacted the response time. I am sure everything was done that could have been, but I guess I am trying to set my expectations because it feels so long waiting to hear news. We are expecting a post mortem to be requested.

I'll do some Googling re bereavement charities, thanks. I know they advise counselling isn't started for a while but I hadn't considered whether anything else may be available.

[Akire]

Sorry for your lose, they would asses each individual based on medical needs, age and how they can asses breathing over the phone. Obviously everyone who can ring isn’t the same level of illness and they would have done their very best to assist. If they needed an ambulance it would have been requested.

Have you thought about speaking to a bereavement charity. Any lose is awful but when there are lots of what if and mystery’s over the “was everything done” they will be able to talk through this with you.

[Thatwentbadly]

When my Mum has been like that they have asked to talk to her to so they could assess her breathing. London and some other ambulances services have said they can’t meet the usual times due to overwhelming demand.