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?

ah I missed the update hope you can get some rest too now she’s all admitted

My husband is an ITU consultant and this is exactly the problem. Plus loss of social care beds due to cuts from our bloody government.

They’re trying to make the NHS not function so the public get behind privatisation which if you check out certain comments on here is working. It’ll take years of people dying unnecessarily before grinding us all down into accepting it.

I am absolutely disgusted by this government but whilst people believe in them we’re stuck with this. And that includes my father in law who couldn’t give a shit that his own son was put at risk in the pandemic with useless PPE provided by Tory donors.

Immigration isn’t the issue. The biggest issue is underinvestment in training, the end of the nursing bursary and not enough dr training placements. It’s no wonder we don’t have enough of either.

Most nurses are band 5 - last month they received their pay rise back dated to April but their pension band had also increased so that was back dated and they actually received no extra pay because it was cancelled out. Band 8as actually owed around £200 in extra pension payments so received nothing from the rise. HCAs are leaving to be paid significantly more in Aldi (we lost 19 in one go when the local Aldi opened).

Demand has increased - not due to immigration - as people have more complex needs and medicine can achieve more than 40 years ago. 40 years ago a person over 70 with a broken hip would be left with it but now it’s most likely they would operate. People also seem unable to do basic care of dc when ill with common illnesses. It’s likely that families being less involved and living further away so you lose the experience of previous generations is driving this.

Many many reasons but immigration is very small and just an easy scapegoat.

My grandfather died in 2001 under Labour government because the London ambulance service ran out of oxygen. By the the paramedics found oxygen he was dead. Not defending the conservatives, just saying Labour are just as bad.

Telling people to vote Tory, thereby exacerbating a long-standing mess.

Can't compare a tragic short term, region supply issue, with whats happening now.
Especially something that happened 21 years ago, when no one in Labours front bench was in that Govt.

So no, Labour are not "just as bad" thats just what the Tories want us to believe.

No. The NHS has, overall, positively benefitted from immigration. There is plenty of material online about the evidence for this if you care to understand more.

The people who will benenfit from the privatisation of UK healthcare will be a few very rich people. These same rich people are Tory party donors or friends of newspaper owners - so don't trust the narrative coming from those sources.

Glad she was collected fairly promptly but sorry she spent all night on a trolley. It is not the ambulance service or the NHS who have the main problem currently, it is community care and no one seems to talk about it. Nearly half the inhabitants of hospitals no longer need to be there but are waiting for care packages, rehab beds, residential homes etc. In our hospital, a patient will wait several weeks for just a once a day care package. It is costing£500 a night to keep these people in acute hospital beds and often families will revise to set up the care privately because they want to get a few weeks free whilst awaiting the financial assessment that now does not happen until the patient is home. If any of you have family in hospital and they can afford their own care on discharge, please source it privately and get them home. It is genuinely the reason why people are treated in hospital corridors and on ambulances outside A&E because the hospital is full of people awaiting a care package.
Yes, there is a shortage of carers generally but in our area no one can get a long term package of care on discharge unless they go privately. The others all wait for the NHS short term responsive services package, which can take weeks.
OP, if your mum has fractured her hip, she may need support on discharge short term for getting dressed etc. She may be sent to a rehab bed but if she recovers quickly and they want to get her home, if she cannot afford care package, if you contact your local carer support organisation, sometimes they have funds you can apply for which can be used to purchase care short term which may get her home more promptly.
I hope she makes a quick recovery and hope she does not get stuck in hospital for too long xx
PS It may be that things are a bit better in your area but judging from your ambulance experience I suspect not!

@BigcatLittlecat I’m pleased that your mum is now actually in the hospital, that doesn’t take away the horror I share at the length of time you all had to wait for help.

@vdbfamily has made some good points. It’s definitely worth researching what the process is and what’s available in your area with discharge in mind. From a personal perspective long admissions are detrimental to the patient, hospitals often aren’t the best environments for actual recovery especially when they’re under pressure and busy, it’s not just about bed capacity.

‘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.’

i am not a Brexit supporter. My statement is from local NHS data & my own senior professional NHS experience.

The systemic staff recruitment & retention shortages significantly predates Brexit & persists through whatever political colour of Government.

Too much political short-termish, ineffective strategic management, resistance to change, ageing population & political sentimentality about the NHS are a few factors of the failing system. The NHS has run on staff goodwill for far too long.

i am not a Brexit supporter. My statement is from local NHS data & my own senior professional NHS experience

I recently spoke to a senior NHS HR director, he said Brexit decimated the work force, tipping it from just about managing to failing and asked if my DD was willing to relocate to his area, London.

My DD recently attended a talk that chatted about the challenges of non EU foreign staff, specifically language and familiarity with drugs.

We certainly had issues with healthcare under Labour in the 2000s and in the 2010s but they were nothing compared to now.

After Brexit, there was a 96% drop off in EU HCPs coming to UK, anecdotally, all the (EU) nurses involved in my mums stroke (which occurred in 2016) care all went back to the EU after Brexit & when my DD was at Uni and working PT as a carer, her boss lamented Brexit as it caused so many EU carers to leave the UK.

Brexit was a great big Fuck Off to EU workers (Remember Mrs Mays speech?) most of whom were doing semi or skilled jobs in the UK, now they aren't.

But of course its not the only reason for the collapse in the NHS but it also shouldn't be minimised either.

So glad you have got to the hospital and are being seen OP.

There is continuous and immense pressure on the approx 100,000 general and acute beds in English hospitals. That is 100,000 beds for 55 million people who need planned surgery requiring an overnight stay, emergency surgery, exacerbation of chronic illnesses, acute illness, palliative care.

Add to that situation the massive reduction and therefore lack of LA intermediate/rehab beds to take people who are medically fit for discharge and the staffing crisis in privatised social care, it isn't difficult to see why we are where we are.

The NHS has run on staff goodwill for far too long

100% on this, mum and now DD both frontline NHS, seen first hand how "Good Will" has been trashed.

My mum had a mini stroke (TIA) a couple of weeks ago. My dad called for an ambulance and told them she had all the signs of a stroke, it took 4.5 hours for them to come.

She was then on a trolley in a corridor for 7 hours before they could find her a bed. My parents said all of the staff were wonderful but clearly stretched beyond the limits of what anyone could be expected to cope with, and the system was just absolutely broken.

Unfortunately, under the present leadership expect things to only get worse.

Best wishes to your Mum for a speedy recovery.

@Pheasantplucker2 Awful, Salk those adverts about acting fast if you suspect a stroke!

@Pheasantplucker2 your post resounds with me on a personal level. I hope your mum is doing okay

it’s an awful time made worse by current circumstances.

Im sorry about your grandad but one anecdote certainly doesn't prove that Labour were just as bad. Many NHS staff on this thread saying that wait times were much better under Labour.

NHS is really broken. My friends mum was unconscious, ambulance came after 9 hours. If you can lift our mum safely, get her in a car and driver over to hospital

@NeedAHoliday2021 where is the 350million that farage promised us after Brexshit for the NHS? Keep repeating that Labour are bad but waiting time were never this bad under labour. Labour also did steal all our tax money to give to their mates under guise of PPE orders. Wake the fuck up

And yet astonishingly, the elderly overwhelmingly vote for these fuckers. It makes no sense, we all know the Tories are a disaster for the NHS.

Wishing her all the best and a speedy recovery.

The NHS until recently was run by a gentleman called Sir Simon Stephens. Formerly an adviser to Tony Blair.

Wishing her all the best 💐

I suppose by the time they realise how it affects them as individuals their voting priorities are way down the list or they won’t be in a fit state to cast a vote.