To Think They should have sent an ambulance

[waxmytash]

I work in a large teaching Hospital and got the bus after work today along with myself there were 6 other passengers.

Approaching the city center & journeys end the young Guy in front of suddenly vomitted, fell off his seat into the asile,another passenger went to his aid as the bus driver pulled over.

Poorly Bloke was clearly not well and couldn't at that point speak. I telephoned 999 and explained the situation as he drifted in and out of consciousness ( he was breathing ok)
I tried asking him his name etc and all he could manage to say was "ID in bag" I looked in his bag (got covered in puke)and found a staff ID badge so it quickly became apparent that he'd just finished work at the hospital and not had too much to drink etc.
Poor bloke was showing no signs of recovery but did manage to answer when I asked his date of birth.
999 operator asked "where's his injury ?" I explained I couldn't see any obvious ones but he was wedged between rows of seats, at that point she proceeded to tell me that as he was 'responsive' ie able to tell me his DOB he was to go to his own GP or walk in center.

I quite clearly explained that a) he was lying on a bus floor b) looked very unwell c) was covered in vomit d) was probably unable to actually stand up without collapsing again. I made it quite clear that he'd obviously not been drinking and had just finished work. Again I was told she would not dispatch an ambulance and that she would now be terminating the call.

Bus driver contemplated taking him to A&E himself just as a Police van happened to pull up alongside, Police came to assist and agreed he needed an ambulance, luckily they had more success than I did and he duly dispatched to A & E.

I know that the NHS is on its knees ( I bloody work for them) and he wasn't in a life threatening condition, but surely common sense says that if a random member of the public is concerned enough to dial 999 for a complete stranger,laying unable to move on a bus floor,clearly unwell then perhaps they should have indeed sent an ambulance or at least a solo paramedic.

I fell down the stairs a could of years ago. With a glass in my hand. Lots of blood, phoned DH at work, he asked me loads of questions and told me to phone an ambulance. They wouldn't dispatch one as I was alert and they told me to drive myself to the walk in centre. I had glass in my hand. DH phoned me back and went absolutely mental. Got on his radio and kicked up such a fuss. Had an ambulance within 5 minutes. I needed surgery it was that bad.

DH is a paramedic and almost walked out of his job that day.

who would want to be a 999 operator now?
cut backs cut backs.
and of course if you dial 111 or go on their website there are times when they Tell you Call an ambulance.

i imagine as said above, they send an ambulance if you need medical treatment on the way to hospital, if not, they put you at the bottom of the queue

My best friend was made to walk miles to hospital as he was refused an ambulance for his severe abdominal pain amongst other things. He eventually collapsed as he got there and was twice told there was nothing wrong with him and told to go home. He refused thankfully as he was told he would have died had he gone home because his bowel had perforated. It's not good!

Yanbu. Sometimes it's hard to determine if it's an emergency over the phone I appreciate that but surely the scenario you describe is a no brainer?

A broken limb does not require an ambulance .

A broken leg may well have a foot pointing the wrong way or be broken in more than one place. The person should just be manhandled into a taxi ...... yeah right.

A broken limb may well require assistance on route. When I broke my arm badly i was in and out of consciousness. That is not unusual. Pain relief both gas and air, and morphine was also given, as was care to keep my core temperature up (one of those silver blanket things). It really depends in the break...

Drifting in and out of consciousness should be a trigger for an ambulance, especially in that situation.
The other problem, as OP alludes to, is that often the Police are left to deal with the situation; this can be a problem especially in mental health crisis situations. This therefore overloads them, which is an inappropriate use of resources and puts everyone in danger as officers aren't HCPs.

Our horror story is MIL, who is 75 and disabled, fell over outside at home, at night and broke her hip, badly . Wasn't found for a couple of hours. Ambulance took nearly 5 hours to arrive.
Thankfully she's a tough old bird

The one night we have left the kids my 2 yr old son started choking at bedtime. MIL panicked, thinking it was a toy coin he had been playing with and dialled 999. She was told it would be at least an hour if she needed 'transport'. She can't drive at night due to an eye problem (and not knowing the area) so the poor love called a taxi, and waited for it to arrive with him appearing to choke on her knee. We were a few hundred miles away at a funeral. He was fine, it was a chest infection that had caused a sort of asthmatic response that needed help.

But really!

My friend came off a horse and suffered a compound fracture of lower leg and suspected spinal injuries. Called for an ambulance who instructed that she shouldn't be moved, said they were busy but would despatch an ambulance. Four hours and several phone calls later ambulance arrived. The end result infection set in and the leg was amputated.

Thinkivebeenhacked - my 7 year old daughters lower leg was twisted round the wrong way. She was lying on a pavement writhing in agony and screaming.

I was on my own and no one was around is, that I think, deserves an ambulance.

When I finally got to A&E there was one woman sat next to us, she'd been brought in by ambulance with a sprained ankle. She did nothing but complain the whole time, while my precious girl sat there white as a sheet in silence!

I'd gladly pay a £25 call out fee if that would help.

But it's happened and I'll get over that sight I'm sure.

I live in a small group of flats where all the tenants, including myself, are disabled. The man next door is in a wheelchair, the man upstairs has lung cancer and other issues.

A few months ago I was nipping to the garage over the road, and as I came out the front door, the gentleman from upstairs was in the downstairs neighbours wheelchair gasping for breath and unable to catch it.

I popped my head in the door and my neighbour was having difficulty persuading the lady on the phone that they needed to send out an ambulance immediately. I offered to take the call, and he looked very relieved.

I had to really push to get them to send out anything at all, we got the first responder in a car out eventually, who called the ambulance to get him into hospital after monitoring his breathing.

I honestly thought he was going to die before anyone got to him.

And my own personal ambulance story, I am disabled, and I fell one day as I was walking to the bus stop to go home. My right ankle collapsed - as it does quite often - and I started to fall. Straight into the busy road! So I sort of threw myself in the other direction, twisting my ankle one way then the other. Got a few cuts and scrapes.

The pain was pretty bad, but what was worse was that I just couldn't get up. I'd fallen on my arthritic hip and no matter what way I moved it was slipping in the socket and causing me agony. I had boots on which we couldn't remove because we weren't sure if there was a break or a sprain. I was also alone, without any means of transport immediately available, and unable to stand.

I started to go into shock also. The police got to me first, and put blankets under me and pillowed beneath my head as the pavement was very cold and my body temperature was dropping. Police called an ambulance in, which came pretty quickly.

In the end it was only a nasty sprain, but I was pretty vulnerable as I was on my own and have mobility difficulties. I'd been having a good day that day, and gone out without my stick. Since then, I've damaged my ankle so badly, that whilst the initial sprain healed, my ankle isn't right and I have falls more often than before. When I can walk, I always use my stick to avoid any more accidents like this.

Good grief these situations are awful

On the flip side - twice DC has presented with a tiny tiny wheeze (no asthma diagnosis, I'm trying to avoid it). Both in context of cold / virus. Both times rang 111 as out of hours.

First time 111 insisted on sending ambulance - I spent 5 mins saying not needed as DC happy, not cyanosed (blue lips), bouncing around - just wanted out of hours nurse appt to check sats were ok & listen to chest. She put me through to GP direct who told me to stop being a dick (literally, he was very nice though!) & let him decide as a GP. The words "just because you're a medical professional doesn't mean you're right, you're likely massively underestimating it" we're muttered by him. Ambulance arrived after 6 minutes - his sats were 80% and we were promptly blue lighted to Hospital (which by the by was a 35 min journey as 2 A&E's locally downgraded

Second time, call handler said GP would ring back. Ok, I thought, we have salbutamol (I'd used 25 puffs over 15 mins before ringing 111). GP called back after 20 mins, first line was "Is he your first child?" Then said probably an ear infection (still no idea why) & give Calpol. Wasn't happy so rang 111 back, they weren't happy either & dispatched ambulance - again sats 80% & bluelighted in. 5 days in hospital.

Transpired small wheeze way more worrying than frank wheezing as not pushing any air.

Have been told (by paediatrician) if happens a third time to give salbutamol as we did (10, wait 5 mins, 10 more) - but if no improvement ring 999 direct & "tell them he's not breathing". Which I shouldn't have to do.

Both times - 111 & paramedics boldly brilliant. As we're all staff.

Second time GP was a dick. But otherwise, all of the 50 or so staff involved (from call handler to play therapists on ward) were amazing.

Boldly? Bloody brilliant...

25 years ago saw an RTA in London (Sunday afternoon). Rushed to a call box, dialled 999, asked for ambulance, and got .... a recorded message. Even the 999 operator was - kept retrying and retrying. In the end, I calmed down and said we'd need the police. So she transferred me to the police, who despatched a car immediately (was there in 2 minutes), and the copper on the scene called an ambulance via police radio.

He wasn't surprised

This thread like all the NHS ones makes such depressing reading :( My DH worked in the NHS for many years before we emigrated and although it was bad especially back in the early and mid 1990s I get the impression that emergency services in particular are far worse now.

I wonder if the NHS emergency ambulance model is simply outdated? We're in France and most ambulance journeys are charged for (they may be reimbursed depending on situation), while many accidents are attended not by paramedics but by firemen. My DS was involved in a road accident resulting in a double compound fracture - fire service attended, stablised his leg and transported him to hospital. Afterwards, as he was in a full leg plaster with stabiliser bars and couldn't get in a car, we had an ambulance home - not a paramedic ambulance but one adapted for transporting patients who need to travel lying down - this was charged to our insurance (and subsequently recovered from the insurance of the driver who hit my son).

I've had to stop reading some of these posts as they are making me anxious, but I'm so sorry about all your terrible experiences :(

I believe what shadowfax07 has posted though. The last time I was in A&E there were 12 ambulances queuing to be seen. 12! I think part of the problem here is there is no out of hours service, no walk in clinics and GPs have limited resources due to there being no minor injuries clinic. So due to that everything gets filtered through an already stretched A&E :(

Op, it sounds like the man on the bus was having a seizure and if he wasn't a known epileptic with no rescue drugs, it is seen as a life threatening situation and they should have sent an ambulance. You can ring an ambulance if someone is in status epileptus too.

The government has screwed up the ambulance service just as it has the rest of the NHS. I work in my local hospital and my dad is a paramedic in the area. Out of his station there are only FOUR ambulances at any one time (one of those four usually off the road for repairs as they are vulnerable to vandalism). So if you have three ambulances and calls come in for breathing difficulties, chest pain, severe bleeding and a stroke who waits? No one should have to but someone will have to and it's due to the cuts.

Frequent flyers have also learnt the right 'buzz words' to get someone quicker. My dad has been to several 'crushing chest pains' that turn out to be sprained ankles as they know they wouldn't have been sent an ambulance otherwise. One memorable 'gentlemen' used to call for chest pain every Friday night (multiple crews so no one twigged) and kick off and walk out of the ambulance in A&E before being checked in. It turned out he lives in the street next to the hospital and wanted lifts home from his night out . Once he'd been rumbled the next time my dad was sent he took him to the next nearest hospital 25 miles away, my dad got spat on for his trouble but they haven't seen him since .

The problem is fewer ambulances on the road and the abuse of the system mean the genuinely needy are left waiting. The sad fact is until it leads to fatalities / life changing injury that can be proven due ONLY to the delay it will continue getting worse and worse.

Absolutely shocking OP, your poor girl.

Sorry, but who the bloody hell vandalises an ambulance?

Sorry, but who the bloody hell vandalises an ambulance?

Scum.

oneflew I have had the pleasure of being in an ambulance on blue lights on the motorway that had a brick through the windscreen thrown by a group of kids, of course they were long gone by the time the police got there.
The problem isnt with the ambulance staff, control room staff or the nhs it's the budget cuts and the simple ignorance of an awful lot of people who call for unnecessary things. I have been called to a man with chest pain as an emergency who on arrival was smoking a joint and said his chest had been sore for 2 months!!! Apparently it hurt a bit more than usual that night, which was also New Years Eve.
I can appreciate what pp have said about broken bones also, yes they are painful and can in some cases be life threatening but if there's one ambulance and someone else having a heart attack who does it get sent too!
I feel sorry for the call handlers making these decisions constantly through a twelve hour shift day to day, unfortunately the right choice isn't easy to make when it's the fiftieth call that day for the same thing.

I work front line.
I have been told by callers:
they need an ambulance because their toe nail fell off in the bath.
They have no money for a taxi or a bus because they don't get paid until next week and there is no point ringing th e or gp as they can't get an appointment right now when they want one. They want an ambulance to take them to hospital.
They need to see a dr, have no one that can take them, no money and no transport.

I have been called a wanker because the a&e is not where they want it to be, (at the peripheral hospital at the end of their road) and told well, you had better send me an ambulance as its your fault I can't get to the a&e as its too far away. He was pissed up and fell and hurt his arm....2 days prior.

I have been told that the newspapers and police will find me for not supplying an ambulance for the man with a headache at 7pm as 10am at the time of the call was not convenient to him as he had to do his shopping and had to go to a football match. When I suggested 2 paracetamol and NO ambulance, he said that when he was dead I would be in the papers.

I could go on and on and on and on.

For every 20 calls we get, we give out maybe 1 ambulance, and 15 Dr/nurse appointments and the rest advise about how to care for themselves at home.

It's breathtaking the stupidity of people.

One of the most appalling parts of the news story about the lady who was attacked and lost her baby last week was that the victim waited for over an hour for an ambulance that never arrived

Blimey -I had an ambulance within about 5 mins when I had an asthma attack - I was outraged that they sent one and said I would get a taxi - as I was on oxygen for 2 days in hospital I guess they were right.

The paramedics were utterly amazing ( as were all staff at hospital ) it's heartbreaking to think they work under such strain.

I have taken steps to avoid a repeat by losing 5 stones in weight so as not to need to call on them again - abandoned also being more aware of condition and getting to the doctors quicker as has happened once since ( before weight loss )

I hurt my leg badly at my parents a couple of years ago, my 75 year old dad with a bad back half carried me to his car and drove me to A&E. Whilst we were waiting a woman was wheeled in by paramedics with a cut finger, accompanied by her husband- she had called an ambulance! Then proceeded to look pissed off when she had to wait like the rest of us, I really can not think of a reason why she needed an ambulance.