To think this is too long to wait for paramedics

[slowburner]

Our 19mo DD suffered a massive seizure on Sunday afternoon, we were about 25miles from our hospital, we are relatively experienced with managing these fits but we are told to call 999 if they go on for longer than 5 minutes. On this occasion the seizure presented differently, she was wholly non responsive and having issues breathing, very shallow depressed breaths and pale. The meds we carry for these occasions didn't work, sods law, we placed her in the recovery position and kept her safe.

It took 26 minutes for a paramedic to reach us.

AIBU to think this is far too long to wait for help?

Wow that is far too long. I think they are meant to get there within 8 minutes. (Could be wrong on exact time).

Hope your dd is ok now.

thats a long time to wait!!!!!!!

Round here average is supposed to be 11mins.

BUT ambulance services are suffering a huge crisis due to the shutting of so many A&Es so people who need to access them can't get themselves there, leave things and eventually things deteriate to 999 needs.

that is a very long time I would seek an enquiry some how, not sure what chanels of compalint or proccess to seek enquiry but that is not good enough.

hope dd is ok now. x

It must have been very scary, and probably seemed much longer than 26 minutes.

Depending on where you where though, if the nearest emergency service is 25 miles away, then 26 minutes from call does not sound too unreasonable.

Contact PALS to complain, that is a shocking time to wait.

You must have been out of your mind with worry.Not really sure about the time thing but I hope that DD is much better now.Sounds like you have a day to day coping mechanism and are doing a great job. Mx.

Depends on the category of the call as designated by the call handler at the ambulance service call centre but does seem a long time especially when you are the one waiting . There will be response time targets that the ambulance should work to so may be worth a call to the ambulance service or a call to PALS at your local Primary Care Trust -they are there to listen to both complaints and compliments and will advocate for you anonymously if you want to find out what happened.

Sorry McHappy just x posted

The length of time the paramedics have to get there by isn't 8 minutes - it will depend on the triage category they've placed you in.

It's likely you were asked questions when you called, and your answers meant you were placed in a low triage catagory ie. they decided your call wasn't high priority because your child's life wasn't immediately at risk. Whether this decision was right or not, I don't know.

We knew it was 26 minutes as we logged the time of the call and the time of arrival. I have plenty of experience at staying calm in a crisis but I was getting pretty freaked out by the time they reached us, as soon as they saw DD they had her on oxygen and monitors, no hanging around.

I will probably complain, if only to let them know that this was unacceptable, we weren't in the middle of nowhere, just a small town.

Once in the ambulance we were at the hospital quickly thanks to blue lights, fairly bombed down the road and I did end up feeling .

Thanks for replies.

Oh and yes she is much better, thank you, a bad combo of yet another infection and a hot restaurant. The last few we have simply driven in after seizure ends as we live close to the children's unit. The drug she is given is volatile and so she has to be checked each time we give it.

This time though her breathing was significantly compromised hence the 999 call and our reluctance to place her in a car seat to get her to hospital given she didn't seem able to protect her airway.

That's far too long - do complain. Either they took three times as long as they should have done for a Cat A call or they triaged the call incorrectly.

It is important to complain. I did a load of research into ambulance response times and sadly a number of trusts were getting away with very poor service. Essentially fiddling the figures. This was a few years ago so I suppose there could have been dramatic improvements, but I certainly haven't heard anything about it if there have been.

No disrespect to paramedics or crews, btw, it's the way the services are run that in too many places is Not Good At All.

Hope your dd is doing OK, btw. I have epilepsy (fortunately completely under control with meds) and often think a seizure must be really scary for anyone watching.