Surprised by not being able to get ambulance

[FrenchFancie]

This is in no way to have a dig at the ambulance service or at the hospitals (but maybe slightly at the junior doctors strike) but I have been really surprised recently when, for the first time in aaages, I have had to call 999 twice, and on both occasions wasn’t able to get an ambulance.

firstly my daughter was having an asthma attack, and not responding to medication. After 10 reliever puffs we called, and were told it would be a 1-2 hour wait. So we stuffed her in the back of the car and drove like idiots to the local hospital instead, where she was seen straight away. But it was a scary midnight drive. Her asthma plan states to ring 999 after 10 puffs and the ambulance should attend within 10 minutes.

second was through work where a child was having an epileptic seizure and again, we were told it was an unknown wait time, possibly 1-2 hours.

both of these things I felt really scared about, wanting urgent professional help and support, but it wasn’t available. I know I’m not going to get an ambulance for an adult with broken ankle, but kids with quick onset, possibly life threatening conditions, I was shocked there was nothing available.

is this the same now everywhere? It’s been years since I had to call 999 (like 10 years) and got a quick response last time (daughter fell off changing table, was in London and overreacted to her banging her head but the crew were lovely).

I don’t blame the ambulance service or 999 operators - in fact on both occasions the operator sounded stressed and upset they couldn’t get me help.

what, if anything, can be done about this situation?

In my area the only things that warrant a cat 1 ambulance response are ongoing seizure, massive haemorrhaging or cardiac arrest/not breathing ( or at least it was when i last worked there). The seizures should have received a quicker response time than 1-2 hours, the asthma attack not necessarily, unless it rapidly deteriorated.

Last year in December my daughter had croup (not unusual) but it had developed into stridor. She was going blue. Got quoted a 7 hour wait for an ambulance. I was scared to drive to the hospital in case she deteriorated further in the car. Thankfully she didn’t but she was taken to reus and nebulised as soon as we got there. This is SE London.

Is it? Not being goady but surely many ambulances and crews are now parked up outside Emergency Departments because the patients can’t be off loaded because of the strike action?

I think ambulance waits have been bad for a number of years. 7 years ago I was at the doctors surgery when they called an ambulance for me which took 2 hours. I remember how frantic they were getting because I was in really poor condition, they wanted to drive me themselves but had no insurance to do so. And 3 years ago my DH collapsed and stopped breathing, he was prioritised but still took an hour. Thank God I managed to resuscitate him but it's so scary to know we can't rely on help and we can't always have a plan B to get someone to hospital by car. I live 10 minutes away from 2 different ambulance stations and 20 minutes from hospital btw, it's lack of vehicles and delays unloading patients at hospital that's the problem.

I also recently found out that many ambulance crews are volunteers, shocking that we have to rely on the goodness of people giving up their time unpaid to prop up the system.

Just on the Insurance point don’t let the police ever tell you that they’re not insured to drive you to our Hospital they absolutely are and many will do it just depends who you get on the day

My nephew suffered a head and neck injury at a football match and had to wait 1.5 hours lying on the pitch (obvs couldn’t be moved) in the freezing cold. Spent 2 days in hospital. Luckily ok but could’ve been paralysed if he’d landed 1cm more on his neck.

Absolutely is the case. A relative of mine had heart surgery last week and has developed life threatening symptoms. He is having his heart externally paced as it drops below 20bpm if not. He is on day 3 of waiting on a trolley in A&E because there is no space on cardiac where he needs to be, because there are no doctors to move things along for anyone. This has been honestly explained by hospital staff.

It does rather compare and contrast the harm from "drugs" and readily available alcohol, doesn't it ?

I called 999 a few weeks ago as I could hear my elderly neighbour crying out in distress and shouting for help through the wall and couldn't contact her or her family.

I was told it could be a 12 hour wait so I ended up calling the police instead.

You're right, it is very scary.

In my opinion, it was a combination of both quite a cocktail that caused the issues.
Class A drugs are far too readily available and then of course that masks the amount of alcohol they can consume without detrimental effect until the point where it becomes problematic
But fundamentally both of the problems were caused by two males becoming aggressive with each other and one hitting the other
Both instances.

Yes I don’t know how they could manage to have a doctors’ strike without it having an impact on an already overwhelmed ambulance service.
The NHS is very interconnected, there are all kinds of knock on effects from one department to another.

The trouble is management being carried out by incapable people. Clinicians go above and beyond (some notable exceptions) but they can't fix a system run by idiots.

It seems to be emergency services in general. Police are on their knees too. They just don’t have the staff nowadays. Worrying times for those in need of assistance.

@FrenchFancie there are not less doctors in A&E during strikes, there are the same number and they are consultants. They step down to cover all resident doctor roles. So waits should be less. But they are not because there are never enough staff in A&E.

I called for an ambulance for an elderly lady who had had a fall and hit her head at 7.30 pm. Was told it would be a priority as she had hit her head, the ambulance turned up at 8 am. This was Worcestershire/ Shropshire border, the ambulance ended up being sent from Telford as nothing available locally.

Quite. But multiply your single experience up across the country and then ask

"How much is alcohol costing society ?"

By all means keep alcohol legal, and other things illegal. Just don't pretend it is in any way about preventing harm.

That happens regardless of strike action.

For non life or death it’s been slow for a while.

i’m rural and worked as a teacher.

i called an ambulance for a dislocated shoulder. We moved the class out of the room to give him space. He couldn’t move the pain was so bad. Ambulance was about 3 hours.

the rest of the day’s lessons were moved elsewhere. Mum came and sat with him as did one of the admin staff.

it is what it is.

When I broke my hip I was lying on the floor for seven and a half hours waiting for an ambulance.

Luckily these street wardens were able to cart me in a trolley thing from where I fell back into my house (boy did that hurt!) otherwise I'd have been lying on the pavement for that long. I literally couldn't move at all. As had a broken hip and broken dominant shoulder.

So yeah, I've known waits to extreme. And I only got one because the street wardens called a special number. When me and other members of the public rang 999 the operator didn't even answer the phone.

This was about three years ago. In summer.

I had an ambulance called for me very recently by a member of the public. They came in about 40 mins which I’d say was appropriate for the injury/conscious state (conscious but had come round from not being so and also quite a bit of blood loss). I got taken to majors in A&E so def a ‘serious’ injury. I wasn’t in danger and people were looking after me.
I v much thanked the paramedic who was in the back with me, saying I’ve watched Ambulance and know how tough it is these days. Tbh I’ve had good treatment all week from various NHS professionals but it’s more luck than judgement sometimes. I’m now under the care of an excellent hospital.

It's nothing new.

In about 2018 I called 999 for a lady who looked like she'd had a stroke, was now conscious but very confused and not able to stand.
It took 3 times to get through - the first two times got an automated message that there were no lines available and to try again later.
The third time when I got through they gave an estimate of 3-4 hours for an ambulance.

This was a summer Wednesday lunch time, so not a typically busy time.

Hopefully everyone reading this will feel that it's up to us to the rest of us to stay as healthy as we can, lose weight, exercise and do everything possible so we don't need an ambulance and it frees them up for those with life threatening health conditions, and accidents.

Personally I find it grotesque when 15 stone people complain about their knee pain.

It’s area dependent but as a general rule, unless you live rurally it is faster to drive. I have a dd who has unexplained blackouts, I’ve bundled her into the car every time hospital was needed as it was 10 minutes away, even if there’s an ambulance available they will take longer than it took me. If in full tonic type seizures that’s different but the partial complex kind my dd experiences are car compatible. They do prioritise on need basis and here at least sometimes the fire brigade turn up for things like falls (i actually think a lady I know is having falls deliberately because she loves the “gorgeous young men” her words picking her up and making her tea!)

All the ambulances are parked up outside A&E at the hospitals . Our local A&E has been in the news for having upto 20 outside waiting to handover patients . I imagine at some point the majority of ambulances in the area will be at the hospital if there’s that many being reported . So not many to actually cover the incoming calls .

Ps: no backed-up crews. Mine came in w me for handover and were out again in maybe 15-20 mins when I got in an assessment cubicle.