45 minutes for an ambulance

[chaddydays]

To take a child with suspected meningitis/sepsis to hospital.

A child (baby!) of 10 months. Rash that won't fade under pressure. High temp and vomiting, light sensitivity

Just awful. My friend from across the road ran to me in desperation as I'm a carer for my son so she knew I'd be in

My bloody car was in for a service and I couldn't help her, couldn't take her. Taxi was going to be same time as ambulance so we booked it and it arrived at same time as the ambulance (we did it to see who's get there first and she'd take that option)

Disgusting. This is what this country has come to. What a disgrace.

2 weeks on and that baby girl still hasn't recovered much and is very unwell. My friend is wanting to go public with the story but worried about attaching her face to it

I worked for an ambulance service 20 years ago and this was unfortunately not unheard of even then. If I needed one, I doubt I would call one especially at the moment, and would probably take the chance that I could get someone to hospital quicker than one would get to me.

I’m currently sat in SDEC department next to a&e. Listening to the nurses a&e is having 24 hour waits and not a single bed available in the hospital.

It's very sad but (assuming you're in UK) unless you've been living under a rock recently ambulances are taking much much longer than that. Even a year ago my terminally ill DM waited 10 hours after she fell out of bed having had a seizure. Someone on here said their Dad waited 24 hours for one having broken his back. I hope your friend's baby recovers but going to the press won't tell people anything they don't already know and it won't help.

It's really hit and Miss but what can you do other than don't vote Tory. My uncle who died recently with end of life cancer.
Became unwell was struggling to breathe and the ambulance was there within 7 minutes. He died 2 days later in hospital with us all around him but they tried so hard to help him and come out fast.
We are in South London.

There are those issues in peds as well families not coping and children remaining in hospital beds as they can’t br discharged. Which means no beds on the wards so a&e full which can’t accept ambulances until spaces.

Ive needed cat 2 level ambulances for my son a few times and they can range from 10 minutes to two hours. It’s not the paramedics fault.

It’s shocking. People will keep voting for the Tories though.

Ambulance waits are much worse now than they used to be though.

MIL recently waited 12 hours for an ambulance lying on the floor with a suspected broken hip.

It's awful. A colleague' dad waited 6 hours after a heart attack. He thankfully recovered.

45 minutes seems fast at the moment, and no that isn't acceptable.

I work for the mental health crisis service. I did a Night Shift last night. We work closely with the ambulance service for obvious reasons.

Last night there were 500 calls to the ambulance. The ambulance trust contacted us and said they could now only come out tonight if anyone was at imminent risk of death .

There’s definitely no paediatric ambulance service. My DD has been in an emergency twice in the past few months (she’s disabled and non verbal which makes it worse to assess how dangerous the situation is).
The first time she was bleeding from her mouth (while fast asleep) . First responder was there in 7 minutes but that was a Cat1 call.
Ambulance arrived 10 minutes later with one paramedic so we couldn’t go to the hospital til a second ambulance with two staff arrived so he could travel in the back with us.
The paramedics had been at the scene of a bad RTC and there were virtually no staff to arrive.
In this case with the baby the poor mum must have been out of her mind with worry. I know I was.

There is an old chap who lives next door but one to me. An ambulance is called to his house on a regular basis. Each time the ambulance is there for a minimum of 2 hours.
Last year there was a minor RTA at the corner of our road. An ambulance attended along with 2 police vehicles. Both police vehicles and the ambulance were there for 2 hours. In the middle of that 2 hours another ambulance rocked up and was there for an hour.
An elderly man passed away in his sleep during the night. Carer arrived and found him. Rang an ambulance. 10 minutes later there was a first responder car, 2 ambulances and 5 police cars.
So maybe the question needs asking, why????

I remember the olden days when GPs used to do home visits.
Could this be part of the problem?

One of my DCs friends dislocated his shoulder while climbing (stupid sport, don't know anyone who does it that hasn't broken themselves). Went to A&E, 12 hour wait later they confirmed it was dislocated but no bone/nerve damage and sent them home without relocating it saying it wasn't a 'major' injury and didn't have the capacity to deal with them due to being so busy. Mum had to ring around A&Es they could drive to trying to find one that would relocate the shoulder.

Did you watch last week's episode of casualty??

It works like this

Ambulances are stuck outside the hospitals because there is no room for them in A and E.
There is no room in A and E because the people in A and E need to be moved onto a ward.
There is no room on the ward because the wards are full of people who can't be discharged because they don't have an appropriate care package in place.

Like I said - all roads lead to there not being enough home carers. It doesn't really matter if it's children, adults or the elderly because they all still have to wait for the same ambulances. Which are stuck outside A and E.

Well, yes there is. They are called PANDAS

No love I didn't. Casualty is fiction right?

It is yes, but Saturdays was all about the issue with ambulances, real statistics & facts were given. Somebody actually said pretty much word for word what you did so i just wondered.

Oh & i'm not your love.

There is a paediatric ambulance service in each area but it's not for the general public to use. It's to transfer kids between hospitals. Our local one is Embrace and my ward uses them regularly.
The general ambulance service is delayed due to bed blockers as previous posters have explained.

It’s horrendous in hospitals right now. No free beds, patients waiting for hours and hours in corridors. Staff at their wits end and leaving because they can’t take it any more. Lack of social care due to massive demand and awful conditions for staff, ridiculous lack of hospital beds compared to other countries, shortage of doctors and nurses across pretty much all specialties, primary care on its knees…this is the NHS right now. Don’t get ill.

Probably. I had to set my alarm yesterday just to be able to access the MyGP service. I tried the previous day but they were full by 9am. It wasn’t urgent but they insist on having a review when I have new meds.

I’m old and remember when GPs would do home visits. I’ve lived in this area for almost 6 years and have never seen a GP F2F - always phone or email.

People voted for Brexit which meant so many carers left the country and it's difficult to recruit new ones.

People voted Tory who enabled the Brexit vote, who encourage low pay which means that the difficulties in recruiting British care staff continue.

We need to revolutionise the way essential work is viewed, respect it more, pay it more, and discourage somehow the ideology that "successful business" means bosses and shareholders retaining the lion's share of the profits at the expense of the people doing the graft.

My FIL had a 4 hour wait for an ambulance and then a 2 hour wait in it outside a&e. Suspected fractured pelvis with breathing difficulties and unstable diabetes. He had sepsis. That was back in July with no winter pressures.
This government isn't managing anything just reacting too late as things happen.

Actually if she can cope with going to the press I think it is worth it - if she can be sure the story won't be rotten nurses, why are they striking. People need telling again and again that the system is broken and we need to vote the current not coping government out. Some people can shrug off an older person waiting two days story but realising how badly children are being affected might make them think. We need to keep shouting about it.

I really hope your friend's baby gets better and they can save her limb.

My Dad waited hours while having a heart attack. Then had to wait in the ambulance outside the hospital, and then another wait on a trolley in the corridor for a couple more hours before being seen and taken straight to theatre. He's lucky to still be here. Absolutely appalling!