To ask advice as my parents have been waiting for three hours for an ambulance

[haveyourselfamerry]

They are 500 miles away in Bournemouth. Dad is 80 and frail with poor visual processing and probable autism.
A little over three hours ago dad fell in the sitting room. Mum got him into a propped up position. It hurts behind his left hip.
The history is that he fell last February and broke his hip. He was stuck in hospital waiting for a fictitious rehab place for 10 weeks, as a result of which his gait has permanently altered.
They are hoping this is not another break as it feels less bad than last time.
Obviously though they are getting increasingly uncomfortable and distressed.
He will fall asleep soon. Mum is wondering if she can get him lying down. She is too fail to stop him dropping off/sliding over.
Thanks in advance :(
Old age s not for sissies.

Not sure but there are plans to close Poole A and E and have all emergencies into Bournemouth so maybe they are starting to route as much into Bournemouth as possible ?

Missed the update!

Am so glad that the ambulance has arrived. I just want to say though that 32k is almost at the top of a Band 6 so new paramedics won't be earning that.

Poor you OP. Hope your DF is OK. It's worrying isn't it? I'm another distant daughter and Its tough at times

We had the same the other day, DMIL has dementia and a bad UTI, GP called for an ambulance for her.

It took TWO days. TWO days. Ambulances were on their way, then diverted as she wasn't urgent. She was too ill to travel by car, you simply cannot transport a delirious dementia patient safely on your own.

I've never had an ambulance get here faster than 40 minutes, and I'm always a red one priority because I have severe brittle asthma and deteriorate extremely quickly. This usually means I'm unconscious by the time they get to me, resulting in hours in Resus and a stay in ITU.

The NHS is well and truly broken, and the reason is deliberate lack of investment. We are a very rich country, there is no need for this.

I cant believe people are suggesting that they ring back LYING about chest pain, shallow breathing etc. I do understand how distressing and wrong it is that your father has had to wait that amount of time in discomfort but what has happened to him is not immediately life threatening. Diverting an ambulance which could potentially have been needed for someone in a far worse off state because you are lying is absolutely immoral.

Please don't lie to get an ambulance quicker. I'm speaking as someone who has done CPR whilst praying for the ambulance to get there. The NHS is falling to pieces, and it is horrifying how long people in pain are having to wait, but calls are prioritised and lying to move up the queue and possibly deny an ambulance to someone in an acute life-threatening situation, is beyond contempt.

Is Poole on high alert? I know Salisbury is and struggling. Perhaps Poole is the same.

I think this is because of underinvestment, it has come about because we have increased numbers of elderly people over 70 and while this was perfectly predictable, the current government mad a conscious decision not to put sufficient resources in place to anticipate the problem, and finally there's a hidden agenda where various key organisations want to see us all privately insured (disregarding the fact that it's nearly impossible to get useful insurance over the age of 70 or if you have a pre-existing health condition).

Not sure what band 6 you are looking at but 32k is right at the top of the band 23k more like it.

OP it's impossible to say how long he will be before he's assessed.

DS2 is a second year student nurse. One morning this week they had 10 ambulances outside A&E waiting to bring patients in because they had no rooms, cubicles or space in corridors.

I hope he's not long, though.

Must add, he's not at Poole or Bournemouth, he's elsewhere.

We're on high alert in Cambs and I dread to think what would happen if someone had a heart attack.

I work in a south west hospital and last weekend we had heart attack and stroke patients waiting 4 hours or more for ambulances.

I was in A&E last night because I hurt my ankle in the afternoon - I thought it was just a really bad sprain and would get an emergency appt with the Doctor in the morning if it was still painful but by 8pm I had a golfball sized swelling on the outside of my ankle (in addition to the genral swelling) and it was agony to walk on so called our OOH number who said to come up ... they are located in our local A&E and as soon as I went to the OOH reception and said "I hurt my ankle" she just pointed me to A&E reception despite me explaining that I thought it was just a bad sprain but had been sent up to the OOH GP.

I went in at 8:30pm, was triaged by 9:30, X-rayed at 10 ... then waited till 4am to be seen by a doctor who said "Oh yes, it's fractured, we'll give you a Beckham boot and some crutches and here's an appt for fracture clinic on Monday" which was almost a relief that I hadn't just sat there for nearly 9hrs for a sprain and it was actually fractured but there was about 6 of us in the waiting room between about midnight and when I was seen, nobody was going back as there were ambulances coming in, but one old lady (at least in her 80s and frail looking) had been there since 6pm that evening and was only seen at about 3:30am and another loder lady in her 60s who had been brought in by ambulance at 4pm after calling for one at noon with a suspected (second) heart attack ... had an ecg but then was sent out to the waiting room since she was still in discomfort so they didn't want to discharge her but as she wasn't struggling to breathe or in acute pain she wasn't high priority ... she was called in to have blood tests and another ecg as I was called in at about 4am, so she had sat in the waiting room for 12 hours after calling an ambulance at lunchtime.

I wouldn't have minded, as every time the door from the waiting room into the cubicles opened it was clearly very busy, but it go so busy that the ambulances were having to park outside the main doors (rather than the ambulance doors direct into the cubicles) and they were bringing stretchers through the waiting room ... and at least half of them were from people who were either unconcious or injured from being out drinking with friends and were clearly very drunk. I don't begrudge people getting brought in by ambulance and needing immediate treatment but when I sat with a fractured ankle for 9 hours because I took myself into A&E stone cold sober, and other people were coming in and getting prioritised purely for being drunk it did start to make me angry at the abuse of the service, especially on a weekend.

I was shocked to hear on the news this morning about the Red Cross stepping in to support the NHS. I mean, what the actual?

And now this thread. A very real and scary example of the NHS at absolute crisis point.
I hope your dad is not waiting too long. Hugs to you too, OP.

I advised to lie.
I'm a paramedic.
Unfortunately a lot of our high priority calls are frankly a complete waste of time.
I sensed the despair of a relative hundreds of miles away whilst her elderly father lies on floor with a potential #nof - this has in itself greater ramifications in the long term the longer that patient waits for a resource tied up on another drunk, another 'flu, another belly ache.

I don't advocate 'lying' generally but what gets me is that time and again a genuine patient with a genuine need is left waiting.
The fault is with the systems used for triage. A call taker does not make their own decision, a computer does.
Please don't berate me as I speak from bitter experience.

My parents waited over seven hours overnight in a&e to be seen when my mum fell a couple of weeks ago... She's in her 60s and not a terrible fall but she needed seeing and cleaning up. It will be a long night for your parents, exhausting for your mum.

Is Poole on high alert? I know Salisbury is and struggling. Perhaps Poole is the same.

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust reported on their Twitter feed today (Friday, January 6) that they had an almost seven per cent increase in incidents compared to the same day in 2016.

www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/15007201.Spike_in_emergency_incidents_for_South_West_ambulance_service_while_NHS_on_brink_of_winter_crisis/

#NOF is a direct mortality risk for over 65s, so it is an acute emergency.

Not sure what band 6 you are looking at but 32k is right at the top of the band 23k more like it.

The basic is £26302 starting. But shift allowance bumps it up quite a bit.

I'm newly qualified, bottom of band 5 (£21909). I get £1250 secure environment allowance per year, I work every other weekend (07:00 - 20:30 both days) and 4 nights every 6 weeks. Including money from Christmas I'm on track to take home £27.5k in my first year, and I have accelerated band increment after 6 months (so in February), so my first years annual salary will be more like £28-£28.5k, not including bank.

Thanks for all these posts... lots to think about while I wait to hear.

Frankies, thanks for telling us about the computer making decisions.... :(

#NOF?

That's incredibly irresponsible Frankie

People doing that is one of the reasons it takes so damn long for an ambulance to reach me. Why should my life be put at risk, and my 19yo daughter have to see her mother turn blue and unconscious yet again, just because someone has lied to get an ambulance faster.

One of these days a lie like that will kill me. I've had 13 admissions in he last 14 months, all of them involving a stint in Resus, it is literally a matter of time, and my family and I quite like me being alive tyvm.

Neighbour called to say dad got up and bore some weight.
Poole does all breaks and paramedic believes not a break.
So good, but what destroyed us last time was trying to get out of hospital....

Is there anyone who can go to be with your mother just for morale support.