Tonight I waited an hour for an ambulance

[bloodywhitecat]

My lovely husband who has fought through so much in the last 18 months had a stroke. He can't speak. He has lost the use of his right hand side. He already has terminal cancer. I am scared this stroke isn't a stroke but is a brain met. Two weeks ago he was investigated for a DVT as his D-dimer was raised and he had calf pain. I am so scared and I am so angry at how he has been failed time and time again since he was first taken ill last spring. There is no point to this post. I just wanted to let it out somewhere.

@bloodywhitecat

My lovely husband who has fought through so much in the last 18 months had a stroke. He can't speak. He has lost the use of his right hand side. He already has terminal cancer. I am scared this stroke isn't a stroke but is a brain met. Two weeks ago he was investigated for a DVT as his D-dimer was raised and he had calf pain. I am so scared and I am so angry at how he has been failed time and time again since he was first taken ill last spring. There is no point to this post. I just wanted to let it out somewhere.

Oh Darling I'm so so sorry to read this. Neither of you should be going through any more distress

OP hoping you have had more positive news by now. It is really hard for relatives at the moment with the assorted rules around visiting etc. Always remember you can take things in for him even if you can't visit, but it may be tricky getting things out like washing etc.

@GreenTeaPingPong

An hour wait for someone with a suspected stroke is completely unacceptable, no wonder you're angry. After all you've both been through. Sorry to hear this.

Last time I called 999 for a suspected stroke patient, the first 3 times I got an automated response "the lines are busy with an unprecedented number of calls. Please hang up and call back later." When I did eventually get through they agreed it was critical/urgent which apparently meant the wait would only be about 3 hours.

We got them to hospital our self.

@Shitfuckcommaetc

No buts. It is completely unacceptable and people need to get angry about this, not treat the NHS like a sacred cow that can't be criticised

Get angry at a goverment who have repeatedly underfunded the NHS every year.
Haven't invested in staff & infrastructure even tho population in most areas has grown rapidly over the last decade.

This is unacceptable, no one is denying that, but the buck stops with the government

Your comment makes me so cross.

You don't need any funding to pull up the sidebars on a hospital bed. You don't need any funding to put the food and water jug in a place patients, particularly elderly ones, can actually reach. You don't need any funding to put the crutches of an amputee next to the bed instead of across the ward. You don't any funding for staff to wear their masks over the nose and mouth rather than just over their mouth when checking on patients with kidney failure. You don't need funding to know that if a person has a history of extremely low iron, that when they have annual blood tests, checking the iron count is the best thing to do, rather than waiting til it gets so low they have to be admitted for an iron transfusion. You don't need extra funding to know that putting a bed pan next to a bedbound patient so it can be given to them immediately is a better idea than keeping the pans in a room that takes 20 minutes to get so by the time they get back the patients have wet themselves. You don't need funding to know that after a lumber puncture when the doctor cautions the patient to stay lying down for the rest of the day and have lots to drink, you don't tell them to get out of bed and sit in a chair and give them one cup of tea.

You know what, I could go on and on about the poor care that has nothing to do with money and everything to do with poor medical practices. All these things have happened to family members. Loads of money could have been saved if they'd just had basic care at the beginning. Just blaming the govt deflects from major problems of care in hospitals today. More money is always needed but how about just concentrating on feeding patients, keeping them hydrated, following clinical advice, and doing basic nursing. Staff put themselves in great danger over the covId crises and many died, but that does not excuse that in another part of the hospital they didn't put the bloody sidebars up on a bed of a stroke patient. Don't blame the govt for nhs failings in basic healthcare.

@bloodywhitecat. I remember reading your probably first post about your husband and I have seen many of your follow up posts. I am so sorry that this has happened to him and to your family. From what you have written he seems the loveliest of men.

Unfortunately for some unknown reason a stroke isn't classed as a category 1 emergency even though successful treatment is very time critical, the stroke association have been campaigning for the category to be reclassed for a number of years but without success. A lot of people are very shocked by this information. When I called an ambulance recently for a category 1 they attended within 2 minutes but sadly my husband still passed away the following day so the NHS can still be wonderful especially in these difficult times.

You do need more funding to ensure that staff aren't so under pressure and rushed that they aren't maintaining good standards of care and safety.

I'm so sorry, OP, for everything that is happening to you.

I’m sorry his care has been poor and that your DH had to wait so long for an ambulance.

We actually had a conversation here the other day about who to phone and who is on the insurance for which car as we’ve decided we would need to bundle a family member or neighbour into a car, unless literally doing CPR. (We’re an hour from a hospital, though we do have a first responder man who comes in his own car).

I hope you or family members can get in to visit as soon as possible. My teenager was in A and E a few months back (concussion/head injury/huge dental delays) and no one phoned me to collect him. I made my own way there anyway to find him wandering around a roundabout! They’d just discharged him and shown him the door. Thankfully a man in a works van had stopped (and tried to take him to hospital!)

You’ve got to have your wits about you but it should not be that way.

@RB68 we've handed the search over to social services to do for a fee. None of the agencies in his area have enough staff and we can't keep phoning round the agencies to make sure someone else doesn't get in first.

Though admittedly madison some of the examples you cite are just appalling and would not be solved by extra funding. I'm sorry these things happened to your family members.

Dental delays = dental damage

I'm so sorry you had to wait so long for an ambulance. Its awful!

@Mumdiva99

This is unacceptable, no one is denying that, but the buck stops with the government

Or with the majority of this country that refuse to get involved in politics, don't vote, don't have an opinion but are outraged when there are no ambulances....

Fgs where is your empathy and compassion? The woman's husband is dying and she's had the agony of waiting an hour for an ambulance when he was desperately ill, all the while wondering if it would ever come. This is not the time or place for your thoughts on politics.

Oh whitecat, I was in your 'nice things' thread and I'm so sorry to hear things took a turn for the worse. I'm glad he's eating and drinking now and I how you're currently quiet because you've managed to get in to see him. How are the babies? Have you got some support around you right now?

Its not all about needing more money. You could throw trillions at the NHS it will still be badly managed.

Why are A&Es so full, well if recent reports are anything to go by its because our GP service is failing people so in desperation people who should be seen by a GP go to A&E.

Then the BMA itself restrict how many people can become doctors I mean ffs wtaf

Lots of inefficient processes and procurement leading to lots of money being wasted.

But no lets not fix the real problems lets keep blaming it on funding.

Thinking of you and hoping you have some support near you. Xx

That's alfuwl. Its terrifying actually. My mum.was outside a&e for five hours in a ambulance last winter. The truth is that the state NHS even if you could get a private ambulance you could still die waiting to go in just outside the doors.

I hope you have seen him now. We couldn't get through to anyone either. Terrifying

..."but how did we end up like this". Tory Government,Brexit and Covid(in that order) I hope your DH gets the care he needs,wishing you both all the best

The main reason we wanted a private ambulance was not so much to get to the hospital fast as such but to give pain relief for someone in so much pain they couldn’t move.

Quite honestly it made me wish for a private a and e but it’s unlikely to be cost effective so I doubt there will ever be one.

I don’t want the nhs to fail but when you are desperate like that even a private option seems a better one than lying on the floor in pain.

@50ShadesOfCatholic.this is exactly the time to talk politics.how long will you shut your eyes and ears.it should be shouted from every rooftop:this government does not give a shit about people!

Sorry OP, that's absolutely awful.

My step dad was similar, he had a stroke this year, had to wait 3 hours for an ambulance on a Sunday night. Luckily he was still seen within the 4.5 he window for it, but I was so shocked how long he had to wait.

I don't know how anyone can vote conservative.

[quote Cowpad]@50ShadesOfCatholic.this is exactly the time to talk politics.how long will you shut your eyes and ears.it should be shouted from every rooftop:this government does not give a shit about people![/quote]
No it really isn't. It is tone deaf and actually very rude and crushingly insensitive to threadjack in this way.

The OP's husband is dying. Maybe when someone you love is in the middle of dying and the people you reach out to switch the conversation to their own agenda, you will gain a little insight. Maybe not.

Or you could read the OP's posts to see how hurt she feels by posts like yours.

This is chat, not politics. Have a word with yourself.

madisonbridges I agree with everything you say. I would volunteer but this is not encouraged anymore. Just so that I could help the poor patients left to the mercy of these people who are supposed to care.

I ma so sorry, this is so unacceptable. I hope he is home with you and better soon.

It's truly shit isn't it. I'm sorry you are dealing with such a difficult time.

My lovely DH had to rely on ambulances several times before he died and we were reasonably lucky that they came swiftly, but my 90 year old nan had a really bad fall and lost a lot of blood, we had to wait over 3 hours for an ambulance, applying first aid until they arrived. I was terrified she would bleed out.

And a rugby player at a league match i worked at had a suspected ruptured spleen, the club doctor did what he could then asked for paramedics to come, he was given a 5 hour ETA (both ambulances stationed at the stadium had left site to hospital already with other patients). He ended up taking the player in his own car - it is completely unacceptable. More investment in the NHS is needed.