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.

Of course. I walked into a&e and probably looked perfectly normal but needed emergency spinal surgery. However I didn't need an ambulance

We are talking people who ring for small cuts, hit head on a sofa, tiny burns, vomited once, diarrhoea, sore knee for 3 days, feels warm, can't sleep, stubbed toe....

I am talking about the judgements the OP made with no knowledge of the people she was judging or their circumstances.

People have given plenty of examples of why "normal" rules for such things sometimes don't apply.

my DD dislocated a kneecap (for the 4th time) and sprained her ankle. she was in a narrow corridor and could not get up, no one else could get her up either, so we called an ambulance - they use a stretcher that comes apart and clicks together around the casualty. In the ambulance her kneecap righted itself so it looked to others like she was fine.

She is now - 6 weeks later - able to walk, after 2 operations.

Sexy usually with something stupid like period pains...

Perhaps you could take your complaint to the GPs and others who refuse to investigate severe pain or assume "it can't be that bad" and refuse to prescribe adequate pain relief? That way women like me wouldn't end up shaking, confused, freezing cold, vomiting and in so much pain we can't move or breathe properly because it hurts too much... and 111 sending an ambulance. For utterly predictable period pain from endometriosis.

You have no idea what the other people were there for OP. I find it very difficult to believe that you knew their full circumstances and even less that you were able to determine what kind of care they needed.

If it is true that people who arrive by ambulance are seen ahead of people who arrive by other means, regardless of injury or illness, then I think you should take that up with the hospital or health authority because that sounds alarming. I've never heard of a hospital that doesn't have a triage system, but maybe one exists at your local. I'd pursue that with them rather than on Mumsnet if I were you.

I know someone who quite literally used Ambulances as a taxi service to and from work for much of their career. Insisted they didn't mind at all. Welcome to the bizarre world of my MIL. I know she was a Midwife, I still don't see why that made it ok. She sure is entitled though. OH was due to be discharged that afternoon. MIL rang at regular intervals to explain to me how I must arrange a lift home for OH with 'Friends of the hospital' or some such charity. The calls may have only stopped after a rant to OH to stop her. After all the bus stop was 5 meters away from the nearest hospital exit to OH's ward and after a single hour and a half journey would arrive 150 meters from our front door, which he was more than capable of doing and did.

I know because I was at the front of the queue and then two of the three ambulances arrived at the same time they were seen first man was sent to wait for a gp and the other like I said probably did need some treatment for his burn but it wasn't an emergency situation that required an ambulance

People do misuse the ambulance service, definitely. BUT YABU for assuming you know the condition of the patients in front of you. I have only been in an ambulance once with one of my children. I'd called 111 and they sent an ambulance straight away and it was the right call. She spent 3 days in hospital. My second child has been admitted to hospital several times with the same problem and I've always driven him myself or got a taxi, although in hindsight I probably should have called an ambulance on at least one of those occasions. I myself walked into A&E last year (no ambulance) but was seen immediately because of how poorly I was. Straight on a drip and IV antibiotics. But to look at me you might have thought I just had a bad cold. You can never tell. But, I do agree that some people do misuse the service.

I agree such a waste if time but in my area they won't send one unless they think you really need it.

I work in a school and I had to ring an ambulance for a child with an obviously badly broken arm. I was told that we needed to take her to a and e. I explained that she was hysterical as in lots of pain and we were struggling to move her and could not contact her parents.

They still would not send one and we had to get 2 members of staff to drive into the school playing field to get her and take her.

What we really needed was not the transport as such but the pain relief for her.

(we did get hold of a parent in the end and I drove her to a and e to meet us there.)

YABU for going to the OOH GP when you could have quite easily dosed your child up on pain killers and got an appointment from your own GP in the morning. You could have taken a slot from someone who needed it more .

FIL serial ambulance phoner rang 999 after getting sun cream in his eye yesterday. It was 'really stinging' apparently. They told him he didn't need an ambulance and should get someone to drive him to his GP if he really believed he needed medical attention. They HUNG UP ON HIM! He was absolutely enraged. I was absolutely pissing myself.

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but when NHS direct was downgraded to 111 they replaced the vast majority of qualified and experienced nurses with call operators with 4 weeks training. Whereas nurse advisors could use discretion and override the (rather panicky) algorithmic software that tried to send ambulances, the call OPs have neither the experience or knowledge to do so.
That's why 111 sends so many ambulances. It's also why it's not particularly useful to ring 111 generally.

Also, when I briefly worked in A&E as a green staff nurse in the mid 1990s, there were pisstakers calling an ambulance back then; they'd often used the 'no money for a taxi' excuse too. After their minor sprain or cut was treated, they'd often ask for an ambulance to take them home again. We'd take great pleasure in telling them to 'do one'.
I imagine it's probably worse now; there's a lot of entitlement about.

Sometimes an ambulance is called and not needed by the time it gets there. I had an attack of biliary colic last week, never been in so much pain, (worse than labour, worse than a miscarriage) couldn't breathe properly it was so bad. DH tried to phone NHS24 but couldn't get through, I was getting worse so he phoned 999. They despatched an ambulance the moment they heard the words "chest pain"... then by the time the lovely and wonderful paramedics got there, the pain had gone but I was a sweating shivering mess, and my blood pressure was through the floor. Did I really need the ambulance? In the end, probably not. But they took me in to get checked. And they wouldn't let me walk into A&E either. They made me sit in a wheelchair because of the low blood pressure. I felt like a right timewaster. Turns out I have gallstones.

HottySnanky
It's not the likes of you who waste their time. Biliary colic is fucking horrible, you were in intense pain that was affecting your breathing. Abdominal and chest pain can often mimic each other. You did the right thing there.

Thankyou cockicidal, it was a bit embarrassing though as the pain had totally gone by the time they arrived!

I think it goes both ways. Some people misuse the service but then there are others who downplay serious symptoms so not to bother anyone. My dad had a numb side at the weekend and shrugged it off as carpel tunnel syndrome (the doctors had said thats what it was when he presented with same symptoms a few weeks previously) unfortunately he actually suffered a severe stroke. I only wish he would of called an ambulance.

I don't think you can tell from what you see/overhear for a few minutes though OP.

I

I really don't envy ambulance staff. They have to deal with so much, often being abused while trying to help people. Spat at, verbally and physically assaulted. It's appalling.

If you can drive/get a lift/get a taxi then you should do

Wheezy asthmatic here. I can get s taxi when I'm.ill. Only the blasted things dont happen to carry nebulisers' and oxygen so on my professional teams calls, I have to ring an ambulance. When I'm that bad I need that ambulance now. Twenty minutes later in a taxi means a very scary situation the A&E team are faced with.

judgemental people who think they know it all just because they heard a snippet of a conversation are bloody irritating. My Dad was in respiratory failure when he finally called an ambulance. (pneumonia and sepsis). Why had he left it so long you ask?

He didn't want to be seen wasting an ambulance.

Wheezy asthmatic here. I can get s taxi when I'm.ill. Only the blasted things dont happen to carry nebulisers' and oxygen so on my professional teams calls, I have to ring an ambulance. When I'm that bad I need that ambulance now. Twenty minutes later in a taxi means a very scary situation the A&E team are faced with.

you'll still get some people who don't realise that asthma kills, and kills quickly.

The two people in referring to didn't have an emergency that required an ambulance.

You don't see a burn that required being triaged immediately as an emergency? thank goodness the paramedics thought different!

Ds is a non wheezy asthmatic so we have had waiting room experts judge because he "looks fine"

It is amazing how many people seemingly know more than those who have trained for years. Perhaps they could share their secrets because it could save the NHS a fortune!

you'll still get some people who don't realise that asthma kills, and kills quickly.

Yep! Maybe Uber can start doing a range where they stock nebulisers', and a nurse in the passenger seat. Saves having to waste an ambulance.

I walked into a busy A+E once looking totally fine and at the desk got instantly red carded into resus.

I'd had a reaction to medication, fainted, knocked myself out and had a proper head injury. In my concussed state walking to A+E was rational! To anyone in the waiting room I looked like a piss taker. I was soundly told off for not calling an ambulance.

Had that too sirzy. The first paramedic I ever needed for my asthma related issues told me k was just having a panic attack as I wasn't sitting I the right position to be having an asthma attack. (tripod). I ended up being rushed back in very ill. That 'panic attack' was a severe asthma exacerbation brought on by a chest infection.

The GP and my respiratory team insisted that I then from that incident carry an alert card with me 'so that they take me seriously next time'. Thankfully all the other paramedics apart from another I will leave out as it is outing have been nothing short of amazing with me.