To think some people waste the ambulance service time

[hannah1992]

So last night I drove my dd who's 19 months to the out of hours doctor which is located at our hospital. You have to wait at a&e reception and speak to reception etc. Anyway three ambulances came in and obviously they get first priority in booking people in. We had been waiting in line for 25 minutes while these ambulances were sorted and my dd was screaming the whole time (she has an ear infection). In the three ambulances was a man that was sent to the gp part so didn't even need a hospital doctor. Another had a teenage boy and his mum. He had a bandage around his hand/wrist BUT his dad had followed the ambulance in the car. He was walking around didn't seem to be in very much pain aibu in the fact that his dad had drove behind the ambulance, why couldn't he have just drove him in the car?

I was just stood there thinking the ambulance certainly in my area (not sure about others) are very stretched and people should stop calling ambulances when a) they can go to hospital in the car ie: it's not a life threatening emergency and let the ambulance service deal with people who are seriously ill. I just kept thinking while they have been dealing with someone who needed a gp rather than the hospital and someone who's parents could have drove him to hospital somebody could have been dying of a heart attack.

On a number of occasions I have heard people complain because ds has been taken straight through from triage after us arriving by car whereby those complaining have arrived by ambulance are still waiting and they don't see that as fair. Ds has brittle asthma and a number of other lung issues hence rarely needing to wait beyond triage!

When you are through the doors you are treated by clinical need not method or time of arrival!

Oh absolutely! I overhead a nurse telling off (as best she's allowed) a mother for calling an ambulance for her son who had a sprained ankle. The mother's excuse was that she couldn't afford a taxi!! She could have got a bus of course. People like her think everything's free and have no concept that each ambulance call out costs about £800! What a loser she was.

It's the paramedics who decide who to take in the ambulance they could tell them to drive or get a taxi. They didn't so an ambulance was needed. These people may not have even called an ambulance. I've called NHS direct and they've sent an ambulance to me twice and both times ambulance took us to hospital but it wasn't me tgat called the ambulance.

You sound incredibly nosy!

People misuse it because it is "free".

It's fucking appalling behaviour, but unfortunately it is how people act when they consider something to have no cost to them.

Look what people do with supermarket trollies if they are free, versus if they have to put a pound in them. A whole pound transforms their behaviour.

DH is a paramedic. I can confirm that he gets sent to some pretty silly jobs ( e.g. A splinter which the caller had exaggerated as having been impaled by wood). But I can also confirm that they don't take everyone to hopsital. The majority of people who have ambulances called out are 'see and treat', meaning they are left at home after treatment from the ambulance team. There are certain markers/situations which mean they have To take them into hospital.

You don't have any medical knowledge I would assume based on your posts to make an in the spot diagnose. My DF fell twice and my DM managed to get him off the fall. I raced down in a taxi to help whilst heavy pregnant. My poor DF was all over the place and extremely disoriented and struggling to start properly. It was not safe to take him to the car, so due to my experience as a student nurse I called an ambulance. He was admitted with severe infection which he was at risk of sepsis. He was in hospital for over a week unfortunately he was discharged and the same thing happened again. He was admitted on the ward and went under investigation for prostate cancer which came back positive. My point in sharing my story if you have absolutely no idea what people are coming in with and you are not qualified to triage people. I wouldn't think an ear infection would be worth a trip to a and e but the gps the next day.

I'm ashamed to say I misused an ambulance once. When my daughter was 2 she fell very badlt and bumped her head. It came up like an egg which I now know is not necessarily bad and she threw up a few times. I totally panicked and called 999. I thought she'd fractured her skull An hour later she was running around the waiting room at A&E The paramedic was lovely about it. She has 2 black eyes for about 3 months after bless her.

laurzj82
You didn't missuse an ambulance the fact she vomited after you did the right thing. Head injuries are a serious thing. I went to school with a girl in my class who was running backwards in pe fell hit her head went to stand up and collapsed. She went to hospital and died.

YANBU..Twice I have been told they would send an ambulance for my son 111. Both times I declined and took him in the car. Neither I considered life or death.

I called an ambulance for my elderly neighbour a few years ago. He was throwing up blood, and had diarrhoea. I did feel bad, but, at the same time it wasn't a great situation and I didn't think the local taxi service would have been happy if I'd called them. I did apologise to both the operator and the ambulance men, and they both said I'd done the right thing.

Anyway three ambulances came in and obviously they get first priority in booking people in.
No they don't.

My DD1 had lots of ear infections as a child, it would never have occurred to me to take her to A&E for that.

The lad with the Dad who 'followed' in the car could have come from totally different directions.

YANBU. Haven't RTFT but I have a friend who is a paramedic who would also agree with you. Although they say it's partly down to the introduction of the 111 service. 111 have key words or symptoms that they have to send an ambulance out for. So say you've been sick and pulled a muscle in your chest from heaving for example. If you mention chest pain they have to send an ambulance.

I've only ever called 999 for an ambulance once, DS1 was 15 weeks and developed a petechial rash which failed the glass test. He has septicaemia so I'm bloody glad I did!
NHS 24 have sent ambulances when I've called before, DD had a febrile convulsion, DS1 had a head injury and was vomiting and when I had a severe kidney infection and was vomiting and passing out DP called NHS 24 and they sent one for me. I do agree that people take the piss, it infuriates me!

Yanbu but..

My son has been taken to hospital in an ambulance twice. The first time even the paramedics thought he looked fine and the OOH GP was 'over reacting'.

He needed immediate surgery. 2nd trip was post op and breathing related, but on the way in looked absolutely fine again.

He's fine now, but absolutely did need both those ambulances

Yabvu. You cant possibly judge why those people needes the ambulance! Its not even your business to be taking note of what they were or werent doing.
Too many people think they know everything at a glance and feel it necessary to comment when in actual fact you have no idea what led to them being in that ambulance.

I've been in an ambulance on blue lights and sirens twice. Once when ds2 had croup and stridor and the out of hours Dr I was on the phone to could hear him and told me to put the phone down and dial 999 immediately. Once when I took ds3 to the out of hours Dr with chesty wheezing and general not wellness and they measured his oxygen levels and called 999 themselves. Both times utterly terrifying, both times made immeasurably less awful by amazing, caring, competent and compassionate paramedics. I've dialled 999 for an ambulance before when my friend collapsed after being attacked in the street and again, remember the wonderful calmness and care of the person on the phone and the paramedics in the ambulance. Every contact I have had with the ambulance service has just increased my respect for and admiration of all of them.

Our ambulance service are fab. There is no doubt.

You would have hated me, I called Dr with breathing issues from hayfever, turns out I was having an anaphylaxis episode. I had 6 paramedics and various vehicles and was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

I walked out absolutely fine at a and e. However the paramedics decided I needed to be taken in, throughout the journey the lead paramedic had three syringes inches from me incase of a further episode or a reaction from the previous medication.

However, you'd have thought I was wasting time and a drain on the NHS even though I've been to a and e myself three times in 40+ years. All because I walked out of the vehicle.

However I have no doubt that many people take the piss, given the choice I'd not have called that ambulance but the paramedics were insistent that I'd done the right thing (as it happens I didn't call it but was sent it via Dr!) and if I felt it was coming in again not to hesitate to call even though I'd probably walk out the other end :)

Paramedics don't take people to hospital unless they feel they need to. My mum is 70 and has copd (chronic lung condition) and called 111 as she felt her inhalers weren't helping. They send an ambulance and the paramedics sorted her out and when she was stable and they were confident she was okay they left her to it. They won't bring someone to hospital just because they've rung 999.

Yabu. You can't diagnose by looking.

DH suffered an adverse reaction to codeine recently at work and the first aider called an ambulance - I think they thought he was having a heart attack. He was then taken to A&E. If you'd seen him however, walking and talking, no doubt you would have thought him a massive time waster.

I think you sound very judgey tbh.

Its not always parents etc. that call the ambulance. I took my daughter to the gp a few weeks ago as her temperature was over 40°, she was hallucinating and difficult to wake. I had never felt heat coming off someone quite like it, I was terrified.

The gp called her an ambulance as her heart rate was so high, she had a rash and he was concerned she had sepsis. Thankfully in the ambulance on the way to the hospital she perked up a little due to the amazing paramedics.

In A&E she was colouring in, she still felt like a radiator but she was stable and no signs of sepsis. Thankfully. You would have judged me- she walked off the ambulance holding the paramedics hand.

We were sent home with antibiotics for tonsillitis, I felt so daft but the doctor reassured me that the gp did the right thing as sepsis can be deadly.

You don't know these people's circumstances.

You can't tell by looking. DCousin is a paramedic and had a bloke who walked into the ambulance, flat-lined and died in front of his wife in the ambulance, they resuscitated him, and he was wheeled into a and e chatting. I mean obviously that's extreme, but does demonstrate you can be very ill but not show it. His wife was understandably hysterical.

Overall YANBU. People do waste the ambulance service's time. Some of it is lack of education about what constitutes an emergency, some is laziness, and some is pure entitlement

It's the different services (999 or 111) that are taking the decision to send an ambulance though. Not the person who is calling.

If one think thatbtoo many people are sent an à abu lance wo any good reason, then the change needs to happen in those services.

Expecting lay people to 'know' whether they require an amabulance is just stupid. They do not have the knowledge to do that.

As for being able to diagnose just by looking at people

Not this again. I stepped out of the ambulance and walked into A&E on the arm of the paramedic chatting and lucid and blood free. It's possible some judgmental twat started a thread on here about it. I don't know because I spent the next three weeks in hospital recovering from neurosurgery.

I was waiting to go in for scheduled surgery for a long-term neurological condition when I had yet another fall and knocked myself out. My mother called an ambulance, explained the situation, and one was sent immediately. By the time it arrived I was conscious. However the crew, knowing a bit more than people like the OP, took it extremely seriously, because it fucking was.

Totally agree. If you can drive/get a lift/get a taxi then you should do. I called a taxi when I broke my arm- it wasn't an emergency.

Same as people using A&E when they actually need to see a GP (or even a pharmacist!) Drives me mad.