Waiting for an ambulance

[BigcatLittlecat]

I called an ambulance for my elderly mother at 4.45. Got told it's a long wait and to not call back. She fell off her bed and think she has broken her hip. She's in a lot of pain. What can I do, apart from call 999 back?

Most of the EU staff at my local NHS Trust applied for settled status successfully.

Trust management facilitated applications in every way possible, it was made explicitly clear that EU staff are valued & respected.

Brexit is not the critical factor in NHS staff shortages.
There are long standing recommendations & guidelines to improve care sector & NHS employment recruitment, published long before Brexit.

Why is the NHS on its knees!

Immigration has caused this problem. We've had enough people to fill a city the size of Liverpool moving to this country, every, single, year, for decades.

This may include a few doctors and nurses, but these in no way make up for the enormous number of extra patients.

It’s retention that is an issue as well (in nhs & social care). Perhaps the govt should stop telling everyone they should just earn 6 figure salaries & concentrate on improving pay & conditions of health & social care.

My friend’s father died of a heart attack waiting for an ambulance to arrive. It took more than 4 hours and by that time he had passed.

The UK is indeed broken.

This!

And people still say, can we trust Labour with the economy...

Don't use a slide sheet ever unless your trained it's not as simple as just putting someone on it as it involves positioning correctly

Where did you get that information from please?

Oh my goodness. What is happening to the UK 😔

Really? Please can you provide the evidence for this?

It's caused by years of underfunding of the NHS by the Tories.

My DIL had so many problems applying for settled status despite being in the UK foelr 6 years either studying at a Russell group uni or working in the public sector that they gave up and moved to her country. I know a few other people who had the same experience. In every case not only did the foreign national leave but they took a British partner with them. That list includes a couple who were both GPs and another couple who were a nurse and a paramedic.

Other way round. Before Brexit kicked in, my mother was in hospital for a long stay, and it was very obvious to me that the system was heavily dependent on immigrants including immigrants from Europe. They were not only providing "a few doctors and nurses" they were evident in every stratum of the hospital, including admin, cleaners, cooks, laundry people, therapists, lab assistants, ward clerks, nurse assistants, porters, you name it. And most of the doctors and nurses seemed to be of foreign origin.

It still is very dependent on immigrants, part of the problem is that there now aren't enough available to fill all the vacancies.

There are many problems

1. People ringing ambulances for things that 111 could deal with
2. People ringing ambulances who could use alternative modes of transport but don't because they are entitled
3. Staff leaving because they haven't had a pay rise in years and they have to seek alternative employment because of cost of living rises every year
4. not enough money been invested in the service every year

It's not just a governmental thing, it's a people thing too.
Until people stop abusing the system it's always going to be broken.
Money is needed- for the service and the staff but society need to realise that ambulances should only be used for emergencies and they don't.

How are things this morning OP?

I watch programmes such as ambulance. I find them interesting but also simply shocking for what people call 999 and ask for an ambulance for.

People have been calling ambulances for stupid reasons for years. They haven’t been waiting ten hours for an ambulance for years.

My dad recently broke his hip and my mum managed to move him into the car (with the help of a neighbour) and drove him herself

Please God, I hope people remember this at the next election. I'm so frightened of what is happening with this callous, incompetent government. Why isn't there more publicity about this?

Where is the Daily Fail when you need them?

The problems with ambulances specifically, track to underfunding of social care. Hospitals can’t discharge patients to an unsafe/unsuitable environment and there isn’t the community or care home capacity available. This brings the flow of patients discharged out of the hospital to a halt resulting in the build ups we’re seeing of patients trying to get in. Hospitals are a bottleneck.

that’s not to say the other issues listed don’t contribute but it’s false to state that this is a problem caused by the patients themselves.

If you look at the statistics attendance figures are Lower than comparisons to January 2020 before covid. Figures have increased compared to times during covid/lockdowns but those comparisons need to be looked at in context because people were largely avoiding hospitals for non-covid reasons.

www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Statistical-commentary-January-2022-jf8.pdf

Yes, absolutely this.

But we have to accept that we need to pay more to maintain and restore our NHS.

We need the community hospitals which have been closed over recent years so there is somewhere for people to be discharged to from the acute hospital.

We need to return to 70%bed occupancy as a planned maximum so that we can accommodate emergencies.

We need to pay all our housekeeping, medical, pottering and nursing staff appropriately.

My elderly relative was admitted to hospital last week. Swiftly compared to all the others on this thread. He only had to wait 10 hours from the ambulance arriving to being actually in a bed on a ward.

While he was being assessed in ED I was at once impressed by the hardworking staff at all levels and also acutely aware that there was a general feeling of something about to collapse. The doctor who examined him was so patient, kind, gentle and thorough. I thanked him for his attention and he shrugged diffidently and said ‘It’s our passion’….

This government has abused that passion within the caring professions for years.

They won’t touch this unless/until they’re on board with ousting the current cabinet. This has been going on for months at the very least.

Brexit stopped the flow of EU HCP's to the UK, Covid, spending not matching healthcare inflation (over many years)... and the collapse in social care.

We are an aging population and simply do not have enough younger people to do the jobs we require nor are we willing to pay decent wages, a care worker can earn more working for a Sitel call centre.

Obviously brexit supporters will say things like "all my EU staff got settled status..." well the stats don't back that up, neither does anecdotal experience.

Oh and Germany isn't doing worse than us, nor will the EU implode.

Things are now so bad the UK is poaching nurses from Nepal, which is banned by the UN as they have a poor health service themselves... immoral.

12 months ago we called an ambulance for a lady who had a nasty fall, the crew was brilliant and as we were at a restaurant and crew had just finished their shift, we asked if we could get them anything, they declined but then said.....

"But if you really want to help us, don't vote Tory...."

I hope your DM is okay and being treated and cared for by now OP.
My 80yo MIL waited 22 hours for an ambulance recently (rural SW, 300 mile's away from us). She was listed as a category 2 call (same as someone who has had a stroke) - 22 hours' wait for medical support for a stroke victim I would imagine be disastrous.
Our health system is well and truly broken due to decades of government underfunding, no long term planning to manage a bigger, older, ageing population with complex health needs, insufficient funding to grow the workforce to meet the needs of the population and staggeringly awful pay terms and conditions for health and social care staff.

Morning! Been a long night! Thank you for all the advice. There was no way we could hace moved her, the screams when she was moved will haunt me. Ambulance crew arrived at 9.30 and were amazing. Sat in anbulance outside hospital til 6, which is a real waste of resources. Inside now.

Good luck op.
Give her a big hug from me.
She will have "fall fright" for a while so try and spring her confidence back as soon as you can.so her mind doesn't spiral that fear into realities.
And make sure you leave with a plan or care.dont go out those doors without something official.amd DONT say you can care if you can't.for her to be offered support you need to be completely put the picture.

Sorry you’re going through this. I wonder whether a lot of the ambulances are queueing outside waiting for their patients to be admitted. She won’t be at the top of the list as those at risk of death are (rightly) prioritised and the few ambulances in circulation are probably attending cardiac arrests, massive bleeds, heart attacks etc. and getting to the not at risk of death cases in between. I would like to see triage visits to administer strong pain relief as that would make a huge difference