To think this was a gross misuse of the emergency services

[retainertrainer]

DSis phoned me this morning. I missed the call as I was in work. I couldn’t talk but was able to send her a text asking if she was ok (she knew I was working so I thought something must be wrong for her to ring). She messed back saying she’d fallen down the stairs and couldn’t get up. I obviously called her straight back. She was crying but calmed down enough to explain that she’d actually missed the bottom step and landed at an awkward angle,her ankle was in a lot of pain. In the time it’d taken me to ring her back she’d also called 999 for an ambulance,her DP and our Dad (who lives a street away). By the end of our phone call her partner had arrived home and my Dad followed shortly.

The 3 of them then sat and waited 30 minutes for an ambulance. They all drive, 3 cars were at the house. No attempt made to get sis on her feet and into the car. They could have been to a&e themselves in 15! I understand she panicked when it first happened and for all she knew it could have been broken but for none of them to even attempt to get her on her feet and drive her themselves astounds me! Turns out it’s a bad sprain. I’m so cross with them all!

I had a strange fall on a piece of ice and couldn't get up and I was like some of you on this thread and didn't get an ambulance but got a neighbour to life me up onto the sofa. This was a HUGE mistake! I am now dealing with permanent disability as a result of this.

111 will send an ambulance to any tom dick or harry in my experience.

Ds got blue lighted to hospital wity bronchilitis on the say so of 111. All they achieved was scaring me shitless thinking my baby was dying.

Paramedics looked at him said he had slight probs and now they were here might as well take him in anyway but he didn't need an ambulance by any stretch.

And as for that post with the pic of "this is what an ambulance costs" - so? Should we all not use hospitals and gps and just have a look online to save money

What an utter waste! Ambulances should be for life threatening emergencies only, not when you have two fully grown adults who could have lifted her into the car and got her to A&E or a minor injuries unit...

Personally I'd charge time wasters

What do you deem a time waster? Anyone who doesn't need resuscitating?

@Enidthecat yes, let's have a Cheeky fucker ambulance waster bingo!!

YANBU. I can understand her being nervous and shocked. but surely once she had two people there then she could have put an arm around both and hopped on the good leg to the car. She did not need an ambulance.

Ambulances are portable resuscitation units, designed to deal with catastrophic accidents and emergencies. If you are breathing normally, not bleeding heavily, do not have a head, neck or spine injury, and there isn’t anything immediately life threatening like meningitis involved you should make your own way to accident and emergency if you are capable of doing so!

999 will assess whether you need an ambulance anyway - you don't actually make the decision yourself. They will ask questions, give advice and they will send what they consider the most appropriate type of responder
Yes but that does sort of depend on the caller not being a royal drama queen.

I called 111 last year because I knew my headache wasn't a normal migraine. They said it was and told me to sleep. I called up the next day saying I had an odd rash but it wasn't that sore and my headache hadn't shifted. They said it was probably heat rash. The 3rd day i was sent home from work to urgent care very unwell and doctor said i shouldn't havr been in work but i had been at school for over 48 hours. I was off work for over a week.
Other times I've called to see soemone out of hours about a chest infection and they've tried to send an ambulance for chest pain despite me saying I'm asthmatic with a chest infection and my GP said to call.

If the person in the OP has given it all 'i have fallen down the stairs and everything hurts and i can't kove anything' that'll get a different response to 'i missed a step, hurt my ankle but i've had a bump'

I broke my ankle, I'm old, I phoned a relative to take me to hospital. I wouldn't dream of calling an ambulance if someone was able to take me by car.

deary me....i wish every call was responded to within govenment time frames..but as there at far more 999 calls than ambos at this time of year......................

I don't think an ambulance was necessary but it's nowhere near as bad as some things people call ambulances for and it's understandable for people to panic and not think properly.

I nearly phoned an ambulance for dh when he had kidney stones when he wanted to drive himself to a and e and PIL said they could take him but he would have to wait until the morning as it was midnight (I can't drive and had 5 sleeping DC at home so couldn't drive him myself). I ended up crying and shouting at PIL on the phone until they agreed to take him. I could have called a taxi but I just didn't think. People can make bad decisions when they panic.

I know of two instances similar to this

1. My mum's friend slipped in a supermarket entrance and went over on her ankle. A man lifted her up. She told him not to but he said it would just be a sprain. She was in awful pain and the supermarket called an ambulance. She had a really badly broken ankle and has been badly disabled by it for the last 20 years- it never healed properly, was reset, pinned etc but has never been right. One leg was shorter than the other afterwards. Arthritis set in and affected how she walked and she needed a hip replacement. The hospital said the damage had been made much worse by her being moved by the man.
2. My friend who slipped down the last step of her stairs and fell. She was alone in the house - husband out for a run. She crawled into the sitting room. He came back rang an ambulance. Broken ankle which despite being pinned and having a further op has not healed well and 10 years later she walks with a limp and still has pain.

and how to i know re inappropriate 999 calls being sent to 111........let me guess.....i work in frontline service..as previously stated...

well I think we need 999 to be the judge of that... I've used ambulances twice for broken bones.... once for myself and they sent a guy on a motorbike to check me out before sending the ambulance (I was in such pain I was going in and out of consciousness)... and once for my DD with badly broken arm, so painful we couldn't move her. We told 999 the full story in both cases and they knew for DD she was fine waiting where she was with me until they could get there and not to prioritise on time, but they were also clear we were right to call them rather than take a lift with a friend

A sprain can be more serious than a break. 12 years ago I sprained my ankle and didn't get it checked straight away because I 'had' to go to work. When I was still in pain after a month I did get it checked and eventually saw a specialist who diagnosed a cartilage tear. Long story short I have had three unsuccessful operations and now have severe post traumatic arthritis and cannot walk without pain. My only option now is a fusion.

I undoubtedly did more damage by walking on my injury. I live abroad and have private insurance so my accident, which happened when I was still UK resident, has cost the NHS nothing. But the cost of calling an ambulance is very little compared to the cost of three, or potentially four, operations. The cost of the operations alone has been more than £25,000, not including doctors' appointments, scans and physiotherapy.

Health is important. We are not doctors and neither, presumably, is your sister. Sometimes these decisions are best left to the professionals.

You work in a frontline service yet talk shite about what 111 can and can’t do? Aye, sure you do

Nobody is being a martyr just realistic.
The woman didnt have to put any weight on the bloody ankle she had 2 men who could have carried her or supported her to the car. Then got a wheelchair at a&e.

Exactly what the ambulance drivers did just they used a chair.

I had an ambulance called for a broken ankle. It was a Saturday night, I was in a club. I slipped on some spilt drink, my friend fell onto my ankle and it snapped.

I got taken to the hospital 26 miles away, with a splint on my ankle. I got put in plaster and kept over night. Then went home, with very strict instructions to not even go upstairs. I had to have my bed brought downs stairs and had to have a commode brought into my living room.

They told me the fractures, yes, that's right fractures, three of them, were too unstable for me to move around much, even in the plaster. When I went back for my check up, using hospital transport, as I had no other safe means to get there, I got kept in and operated on, with two plates and 9 pins being used in total.

I had not even fallen down one step, just slipped on a flat floor, so no way could you tell what damage had been done, especially from work!

How exactly am I talkin shite about 111 service..??..i Guess it depends on what area of the country you live in....

No one is advocating martyrdom I don't think, just a healthy application of common sense.

Thanks for the replies,I’ve read them all and I do appreciate now that a break is not necessarily more painful than a sprain and that many people would have reacted in the same way.

I still feel that they wasted the paramedics time. My sister was quite calm by the end of the phone call to me. She could have them cancelled the ambulance. My dad and bil should have at least attempted to get her to her feet. She’s only little (welsh stock) 5ft nothing and 7 and a half stone wet through. They could have carried her between them. She was at the bottom of the stairs,the car parked on the road at the front of the house is literally a pavement width away.

I don’t think she should have send me a text saying ‘I’ve fallen down the stairs and can’t move’ either. ‘Missed the bottom step and my ankle hurts’ would have covered it!

Well op now you can show her this thread her hope she hangs her head in shame, can't you! 😬

Yeh I think I might!