To be pissed off with even a discussion about calling 999 in a non emergency.

[Buddhagirl]

There is a serious problem in this country with people calling 999 or going to A&E for medical problems that can be sorted by non emergency services.

It really really annoys me. There should be no debate. The nhs is overstretched, ring nhs direct, call your gp, go to a pharmacy, go to a drop in clinic. If it is serious drive to casualty, if it's life threatening call an ambulance. AIBU to expect people to do this and respect the nhs?

Mmmm doesn't make sense does it? You ring 999 for emergency services? They even answer that way. You request police/ambulance/fire service?

I know it doesn't make sense but it's true

The thing is, how do you know it's life threatening? I woke up in agony during my first pregnancy, called nhs direct, was told it was 'normal' but to call and ask doc for telephone consultation. Doc (thank goodness!) doesn't do telephone consults so I drove (how I got there I'll never know) to the surgery, collapsed in reception, was blue lighted to hospital and had emergency surgery within a few hours. I didn't think it was an emergency - it was.

A few months ago dh started talking absolute gobbledigoook. I was terrified. I thought he was having a stroke. I called 999 without a moment's hesitatation. An hour later he was fine. We still dont know what happened. It wasn't an emergency. With hindsight we didn't need the ambulance.

Do you see what I mean?

I agree the 'change lightbulb' or 'stubbed toe' callers are a joke and something shoukd be done, but I do think there needs to be some leeway for when we just don't know if it's an emergency ir not.

Only on mumsnet could a thread dissolve into:

'my DH got stabbed in the heart with an ice pick and then we called an ambulance. What about that eh eh? Do you think I shouldn't. Come onnnnn!'

And

'well I got my feet cut off by a lawn strimmer and I didn't diall 999, I walked 30 miles on the stumps (with ebf ds strapped to my back in the sling) to a and e.'

Quicker for me to drive than wait for an ambulance, and I know people who died after the ambulance took 40 mins to come. It's 10 mins to drive.
Beside the point a bit, but as cuts affect response times, perhaps worth finding out what the situation is like in your local area.

but what's an emergency for some people isn't for others. When DS broke his arm (aged 6) falling off the monkey bars friends asked "oh did your DH call an ambulance". No, he called me - I met them at the park, parking close by - with a bottle for DD and popped ds in the car and drove him to hospital. When I was 20 weeks pg with dd I had severe chest pains and was really struggling - got to the GP clinging onto the buggy for support - was on my way to nursery with ds. The GP called an ambulance thinking I had a pulmonary embollism, the receptionist took ds to nursery and called dh. It was something else as it turns out but I was in hospital for five days.

Funny how I always get an appointment straight away if I say I feel in the slightest bit unwell.

But you can't know the situation in your local area. There may be an ambulance station round the corner but 99% of the time they won't be there. You might think there's loads of ambulances and then on the day you ring there's a huge car crash or a major incident. Or your local ambulances could be out in another area that need more cover. Even we have no way of predicting whether there's going to be a 10 car pile up in the next hour.
There are definitely more calls now, we used to get maybe 1000 ish in 24hrs. Now 1600 is average, 2000+ is busy.
I know when I first started things like stabbings would get everyone going "ooh stabbing". Now it's just "oh. Another". Not trivialising it obviously but they are just more common now

The only people who annoy me are the ones who a) make any kind of hoax/nuisance 999 calls (which I think is pretty despicable) or b) call an ambulance for clearly petty reasons - although presumably those really trivial ones get filtered out anyway??

I think calling an ambulance if you are in labour is acceptable, even though it is v unlikely to be a life-threatening situation in most cases. I have been in this position. If you don't (for whatever reason) have access to a car, people shouldn't be made to feel bad about it.

VelvetSpoon the real fuckers know that if they mention the words "chest pain" then they have to get an emergency ambulance even though the controller knows they're lying and they don't need help at all. Meanwhile granny lies on the cold tiles with a broken hip and drops down the priority list because she isn't actually dying yet.

FWIW I had a chat with my mw about precipitate labour this week, as my last labour was "rapid" and we only just got to hospital in time, mostly because it was a very quiet time for traffic.

One of the options I've been asked to consider is a home birth. Obviously that isn't suitable for everyone, but those with low-risk pregnancies and serious transportation issues probably ought to be more encouraged to consider HB.

there must be stats surely about response times? sure, you dont know what it will be like on the day, but gives you an idea

also, ambulances take you to the local hospital. you might not want to go there if the death rates are horrendous. better to look into it beforehand. i would drive straight past our local and on to the regional if i had any choice at all in the matter, particularly with the kids

just googled and i live in the bottom 3 areas for response times - explains a lot.
will continue to drive to a and e in emergencies then!
past the hospital with suspiciously high death rates and in to tge other ine

I think the main issue in that other thread is that the OP's father was an emergency - a diabetic with uncontrolled D&V who is starting to become confused/less than lucid can be very seriously ill (and he is still in hospital days later with his blood sugar all over the place) and they rang 111 instead.

Oh there are stats on response times yeah. But it has to be taken I to consideration - hit the 8 minute target. A failure might just be that it's 8 minutes and 2 seconds

And I have used a different hospital to my local as shorter waiting times. The journey there with an open displace fracture was painful but I got seen and treated very quickly (a relative drove me)

I think that people are being genuinely obtuse, there is a huge difference between calling 999 for a grey area (we should have for the baby laSt week instead of driving tbh) and the total wasters who call for ridiculous reasons.

Such as the girl my sil treated who came in with an insect bite because it might Hey infected. When she was refused antibiotics she went home, waited until next shift, came back in again by ambulance.

I had my plans go out of the window when I went into labour with dd4. DP was at work with the car over an hour away, parents an hour away too problem is when I went into labour it was clear i didn't have an hour. Rural area and a Sunday night and it was clear i was ready to push, ambulance was the only option. Dd4 beat the ambulance though, she came out with very little assistance before they arrived.

Aside from that our local A&E dept isn't what you'd call local its about 20 miles and 2 hours on the bus, it makes it harder for people to get there now the two closer ones have been closed it is inaccessible for a lot of people so i can understand ambulances being called doesn't make it right but maybe the reasons people call ambulances needs to be addressed first.

Of course some people call for ridiculous reasons, because they are in a panic and don't know what to do or are idiots, twats, whatever but there were posters a couple of years back saying only call in an emergency but no guidance on what does and does not count as amublance worthy, and the OP says only when life-threatening, yet what guidance is there on what is potentially life threatening.

I find it very depressing the number of people who call 999 because they think they are entitled to a free ride.

I read a book (from a blog) called something like blood sweat and a cup of tea written by a paramedic.

They had one guy who discovered that if he phoned 999 the ambulance HAD to come out, he also lived very near a hospital.

So he would go out on the lash, call and ambulance and walk from hospital home as a free taxi service.

One day he did this and instead of taking him to his local hospital they took him to one 20+miles away. He didn't call them again.

I've had ambulances three times. The first was called by my then GP on a home visit.

The second and third were both when I wad been woken up with severe pain and vomiting.

It was never established what the pain was but I was checked for kidney stones, gall stones, at one stage they thought an ovarian cyst had burst or it was an ectopic pregnancy, ruled out appendicitis because I'd already had it removed, thought it could be adhesions from my appendix scar, did an ECG in case it was an MI.

I've just listed those so that anyone who has unfortunately had any, you can see how much pain I was in. I had no other way of getting to hospital and I knew I needed to be there. I also knew the paramedics could start treatment / assessment with blood sugar, and obs.

VelvetSpoon Sat 13-Apr-13 23:03:52
I think calling an ambulance if you are in labour is acceptable, even though it is v unlikely to be a life-threatening situation in most cases. I have been in this position. If you don't (for whatever reason) have access to a car, people shouldn't be made to feel bad about it.

Well the London ambulance service doesn't think so:

Please think carefully before calling an ambulance in pregnancy or normal labour. Call your midwife, birth centre or labour ward in the first instance for help and advice

Ambulances are eeded for life threatening emergencies, and normal labour is not an emergency

www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/calling_999/when_to_call_999/advice_-_due_to_give_birth.aspx

It's unbelievable how many women rock up via ambulance in early labour only to manage to get a taxi home went sent away as not yet in active labour. They always manage to get a taxi then. Or a mate to pick them up if they're faced with a night in the hospital foyer. I've even seen normal early labourers come in via ambulance and their birth partner to follow up in the car!

I called an ambulance because my daughter had a bad cut to the head - which she'd got outside when something heavy fell on her. It needed stitches, was pretty deep, and she's only five. I was cleaning her up and planning to driving her to the hospital myself, but then she said she felt funny and collapsed. I didn't know whether there might be an underlying brain injury and didn't want to risk something happening when I was on my own with her in the car. In the end she was fine, just a few stitches and home again in under three hours, but it was a tough call at the time. Hard to know what's best in the heat of the moment, especially when someone is so little.

I don't understand why so many people are being awkward on here. It really isn't hard. (Guilty conscious?)

Ambulance -

• unconscious
• difficulty breathing
• Chest pain
• seizures
• severe head injury
• precipitate labour
• limb hanging off
• spinal damage
• several bleeding from any oriface
• broken bone - where the patient is unable to get in to a car (leg perhaps or bit of bone sticking out)
• impalment in a sharp object

There are more.

Not an emergency and does not require an ambulance

• cough and cold
• D&V
• Headache
• small wound needing a plaster, bit of glue or a few stitches
• insect bite
• alcohol abuse (unless severely unwell)
• broken wrist, collar bone etc
• Strain and sprains

Etc

"- small wound needing a plaster, bit of glue or a few stitches"

yes, but see my post above - sometimes it's not easy to tell whether a wound is serious or not, especially if it is to the head.

Severe head injury and unconscious are both in the first list.