Should I Complain? NHS 111

[Lilwelshyrs]

I had a bit of a nasty fall off my horse yesterday. I hit my head, and skidded on my back. I honestly don't know exactly how I fell as no one saw it, but crucially, I was wearing a helmet, I didn't black out and there was no blood. I had to get up and get my horse - we were in a big field on our own.
I took the evening off of work and my DH was with me for the whole day.
This evening I went back to work and a few of my colleagues said I should probably go to A&E as I was complaining of a sore back and whip lash. As the end of work was only a few hours away and I managed to successfully commute into London, I figured I'd try NHS symptom checker. I would answer a few questions and then it would say the service was "currently unavailable".
So I thought, why not try 111?

I work in London but live in Sussex...
So I'm asked all the usual - home address, doc etc. Then the guy asked if I was safely at home to which I explained I was at work. He then asked me the usual questions - chest pain? No.
Hard of hearing? (Pardon?) No.
Loss of sight? No.
Then "have you had any neck pain?"... "Yes, and it's gotten worse since the fall".
He puts me on hold.
He asks me if my workplace is hard to access? I said no.
He puts me on hold.
He then comes back and tells me an "urgent ambulance" has been booked and is on its way...!

Eh?! What?! Why was I not asked? Am I about to be bundled into an ambulance like I'm some emergency case and then left in a London A&E which will have patients in far greater need of assistance than what I need?!
He never asked me about concussion or if I had blacked out upon impact of the fall, hadn't asked if I had felt nausous today and crucially hadn't asked if I was able to get myself to A&E (yet I had miraclously made it from Sussex to London without the need of assistance?!).
I thought 111 was to weedle out the non-emergency from the emergency? I felt he didn't ask me the right questions and I nearly wasted valuable ambulance services!

AIBU? Should I complain? Has anyone had this happen to them?!

FYI I am on the way to my local hospital which should be much quieter and will be assessed quickly with my DH in tow.

After I'd visited my GP several times over a 3 month period and was told I had a virus, maybe on reflection I should have called 111 instead. I might have got my broken neck seen to straight away instead of walking round with one for 3 months becoming slowly paralysed without realising it.

If I'm being generous I could say a broken neck is not easy to diagnose, (symptoms were achy joints and weakness with pins and needles) and I am grateful I didn't end up in a wheelchair permanently.

If I'm being not so generous, my GP was useless and failed me without even doing the basics.

Achy limbs not joints!

The fact is that 111 cannot see you or physically examine you. They don't know you.

They will have sent an ambulance because they want a clinician to eyeball you ASAP. They wouldn't want you to drive yourself to A&E because of the risk of accident - what if you suddenly became paralysed/unconscious at the wheel?

111 is a blunt instrument but it successfully triaged thousands everyday.

I was under the impression that 111 was available for advice? I wanted advice but they didn't advise, just called an ambulance.

I didn't want an ambulance - my choice. If they'd told me they wanted me to get in an ambulance then I'd have said no thanks, I'll take myself to a&e as im not going to a&e in London at 9pm when I live in Sussex.
Yes - a&e is the place to go with a head and neck injury but I wanted to avoid it as I didn't want to waste people's time or my time. If 111 had said I could self medicate then great! They didn't say "er, we think you have symptoms that point to a potentially broken neck and advise getting to a hospital asap".

Once I had got to my local a&e, I sat in a waiting room - I was triaged but there was no concern for putting me on a stretcher or anything... My point only that had I got into that ambulance at 9pm that night, all they'd have done was take me to a&e where I would have sat for hours to be seen. And again, I don't have an issue with waiting - I know how the queuing system works and that I wasnt a high priority case.

Also we could play the "what if" game all day. What if I had knocked myself out when I fell off? What if when I did get in my car at the stables, I went unconscious at the wheel? But I didnt. My DH met me in the car and drove me safely to a&e where I was seen to after a 4 hour wait.

Pulps - that's awful! There are many sloppy mistakes like that in the NHS - my friend was diagnosed with a urine infection but instead she had cancer which wasn't diagnosed until a good 3 months later!

The fact is that once you call the NHS, it has a duty of care to you. You are its responsibility.

People do try to refuse ambulances - injuries/mental health issues/ health conditions can cause people to be irrational.

But I also have the right to refuse it! theyre not about to bundle me into the back of an ambulance are they?!

Did anyone bundle you into the back of an ambulance?

Or did someone call, an ambulance on your behalf after you called them giving details of a head injury and ongoing neck pain?

You should have gone to a&e but you didnt want to waste your time. Preferring to defer reesponsibility to someone else.
Who dec

Becaue if someone tried to bundle you into the back of an ambulance againt your will you should make a complaint imo

If someone called an ambulance on your behalf because you asked them for advice and without seeing you, or being a doctor, they were expected to make a decision about your requirements then no, you dont make a complaint about that.

My mother had to call 111 this morning. She mentioned to me that she 'had cellulitis in her leg again and would tell the doctor on Monday.' The cellulitis had started as a patch on the front of her leg last night and by this morning it had tracked all over the back of her leg. I told her that she shouldn't wait until Monday - it's a fast developing infection.

She phoned 111 at 8.45 am. The call handler said that as Mum had cellulitis in the past, she didn't need to go through the triage algorithm and her case would be passed straight to a doctor who would phone within the hour. Just 20 minutes later, a doctor called and, after a quick chat, booked her an appointment at our local hospital to attend the out of ours doctor surgery for 10.36.

We attended clinic, she had a quick examination, medical history, blood pressure check and temperature check. Then a prescription for a broad spectrum antibiotic was written and we were on our way.

2 hours from first contact to treatment. That's a good service, in my eyes.

goodness me this is getting ridiculous.

As I am continuously saying, my problem isn't that they called me an ambulance, it's that this wasn't COMMUNICATED to me!
I wanted some advice but I wasn't given advice... I would have liked to have been told that perhaps an urgent ambulance was needed.
Is this not clear in my previous posts?!

I think that it's not widely understood that you can turn down an ambulance at any point, so when they said 'we've organised an ambulance' you can say I do not want this and will refuse it. Equally you can refuse any treatment or observations when they arrive.
I've refused an ambulance called from 111, I called with wheezing and because they could hear my breathing and I had chest pain they called an ambulance. I knew that what I needed was an OOH appointment plus I'm a 5 minute walk from the hospital with transport of my own. I said 'No I need an OOH appointment, and explained my thinking and they were happy to arrange that.

Exactly... What baffles me is that he didn't say "I think you need an ambulance" merely "we've called an urgent ambulance for you".

There was no explanation, no question nothing. When I said I didn't want one, he put me on hold again for 10 minutes... I never got taken off of hold as I had to go back to work and as I went back, my signal dropped out and disconnected the call. I did get a call back which (because Id started act 2, it was very noisy and I couldn't really talk!) was saying something along the lines of "you are refusing an ambulance, yes? You are responsible..." Or something, I'm not sure.

Bottom line is that an ambulance didn't arrive at my work place mid show, I got myself to my local A&E where I was seen to and got home at 4:30am with some pain killers.