how do i get to A&E?

[hurtmyankle]

not AIBU but posting for traffic

I've fallen over about half an hour ago and heard my ankle crunch, can't put weight on it and in a lot of pain, taken paracetamol and got it raised but really am in unbelievable pain and think I need to go to A&E, my DP says i've just fallen over and i'm being silly but i'm not so He's gone to work.

I can't get a taxi and have no family here to call to drive me so how do I get to A&E? If I ring 111 can they arrange transport? The hospital is only a 2 minute drive from me but I can't walk what is the best thing to do?
Sorry for asking here but my DP is useless and my family are all away

Call a local taxi , explain the situation and ask if it would be ok to pay them on Monday, any decent taxi company would understand the situation.
Ambulances can save peoples lives , I would not want to be responsible for one not getting to a life and death situation

As someone said earlier A & E stands for ACCIDENT and emergency. This was a ACCIDENT. Plus how was she going to get into the taxi if non weight bearing. And also she would have needed a wheelchair at the hospital at the other end. Was the taxi driver going to run round looking for one. And get her into it safely without causing any further damage. Ambulance crews are trained to move people safely

When I broke my foot in 2006 I was able to walk with a stick but just knew it was not right but DH said I did not need to go to A & E but I insisted and when I appeared later in plaster up to my knee and on crutches he was a bit gob smacked. Roll forward a few years when I fell and hurt my elbow on a Saturday and was extremely painful. He suggested I see GP on the Mon (who was only going to tell me to go and get a X ray ) anyway made him take me to hospital where I was told I had broken my elbow. More being gob smacked

I really do get quite fed up with the people on here who go apoplectic at the thought of phoning 999 for an ambulance for anything other than near death (which makes up a very very small percentage of call outs). As is counselled here on many an occasion, decisions should not be suggested by those who are not qualified to do so and very few people on here will have any idea of what a modern ambulance service and its HCPs actually do and are capable of doing. The reality of what is actually dealt with is very different than the perception given by programmes such as Casualty and their (dire) ilk.

It was entirely appropriate, given the circumstances, for the OP to call 999 with her injury - even when she called 111 the services of an ambulance were offered. It is for the 999 call handlers and dispatchers to worry about who and what to send where. The real time wasters are those who lie and manipulate the system for their own ends and I could tell some stories... Even those "frequent flyers" are not really hoax callers. A burden on an overburdened system, yes, but they also need assistance for other, often very complex issues, and are no less deserving.

As long as you are honest and disclose fully on the 999 call you will be assessed and dealt with appropriately. No one should ever fear calling 999 over some crazy misguided peer pressure. People have put themselves in jeopardy by not getting the appropriate help. People have died and that is so sad - all for the want of one phone call. I have spoken with so many people who avoided calling because they didn't think it was "important" enough or didn't think they are allowed to. This is the reason the ambulance service should never charge for call outs because it will compound this so much more. Instead investments are made to the command and control to make it more robust and reliable.

And while I am here and ranting anyway - to those people who keep on indicating a sprain as some kind of minor injury that can be dealt with at home... JUST NO! Ligament injuries can, and often are, worse than bone fractures. Also at point of injury it is possible to chip or crack the bone where the ligament joins and can be both fracture and sprain. Ligament injuries often take longer to heal too. Leave it too long to seek medical intervention and an x-ray becomes inconclusive (especially to the smaller fractures) because of the swelling resulting in further visits to hospital and repeat x-rays.

There are numerous reasons why it is entirely appropriate to attend A&E with these injuries and to need an ambulance for them. That is why the safest catch all answer is - yes, you should call 999 and discuss your injury and your circumstances with the people who are most able to help you make the best decisions.

Just a thought - some hospitals have hospital transport (non-Emergency Ambulance or car) available for patients with no other way of getting home. Is this unusual?

Get well soon. Best wishes

Hear, hear Poshjock. I hope your post makes the twats think twice before posting on another thread like this. OP didn't even ring 999, yet got berated for wasting NHS resources.

OP I'm glad you got it sorted, and it sounds like your ex-colleague is worth keeping in touch with. She sounds like a nice person.

Take things easy.

@Angie169 RTFT

Good sense Poshjock

Beezie. That's the Patient Transport Service which is part of the ambulance service. They tend not to be fully available 24 hours but their role is to ensure that patients for whom public transport isn't suitable get to and from hospital and to hospital appointments. They also transfer people between hospitals. I'm cases where a paramedic arrives and the patient needs non urgent transfer to hospital, it is often patient transport who do that in order to keep emergency ambulances free for emergencies.

I'm not bothered about the ambulance, its not anyone's fault the NHS is a disaster.
But, living with an asshole in isolation with no money. I've been there. That's far more worrying than a broken ankle. I can remember so well not having money but it's not normal to be trapped because of not having 4.50. It's really not ok.

Wax - thanks for info. I was just thinking it could be a way for OP to get home without cash after treatment although it could be a long wait.

Glad you got sorted and hope you're feeling a little better.

3 years ago my the 8 year old daughter fell off her bike and broke her leg. It was clearly broken as her foot was twisted round. We were two miles from home, two bikes, two helmets on the side of the road.

I called 999 and I was told they wouldn't send an ambulance as it wasn't an emergency. I had to call my brother to come and get us and try to get her in the car.

Luckily a man in a house we were near took our bikes and kept them for three days.

At the time I was so upset they did this, but in hindsight she was conscious and breathing so understand why they said this.

Beezie, as with all these things, the criteria to qualify are becoming stricter and stricter so OP would need to require the services of an ambulance rather than be able to self transfer by car/taxi. Once OPs injury is stable then she would need to be in a wheelchair and unable to stand to qualify i would think. Unfortunately the service isn't there just for people who are poor.

You can call the hospital and they can arrange transport or pay the taxi fare in urgent cases like this.

I do not understand your issue with my post !

I'm going to hire myself out as internet fracture consultant, was thinking nah, can't be broken from a little fall but when I saw the photo it looked like it could be very much. Gutted I didn't get to come on here and be a proper internet diagnoser to great acclaim.

Hope your DH is waiting on you hand and foot for being such a wally and that you heal super quick.

"its just a sprain"

um.. you are aware that a 'sprain' is actually caused by you tearing the ligaments around the ankle and is often not only more painful than a break, but take a hell of a lot longer to heal.

Last time I sprained my ankle my foot went black, swelled like a balloon and it took me two weeks to be able to even stand on it and a further 6 months of wearing support bandages before I could walk pain free and its left me with permanent damage because the ligament in my ankle frequently 'locks' which makes it extremely painful to walk until it releases.

@Angie169 the OP has now been to hospital, and has confirmed her ankle is broken.

As many of us had already said, it was perfectly appropriate to call an ambulance for a suspected broken ankle.

I don't know if many - if any - taxi firms (other than Uber, which don't operate everywhere) that would offer credit for a journey.

@Poshjock I wish I could 'like/love' your post. MN/google educated doctors/nurses/paramedics are dangerous. Your post is spot on about what happens in an EOC. There are qualified mental health nurses, pharmacists, specialist paramedics etc in ours as well as 'call handlers'. If you don't need an ambulance you won't get one - simple! I was glad of one when I had my relatively moderate head injury. I'd been unconscious, I was bleeding but I could walk and we could afford a taxi. Getting to hospital any other way than by ambulance was not safe. My dad wouldn't call one after falling off a roof and couldn't believe that when I insisted he at least ring 111 he got an ambulance sent out and had what I suspected as a fractured pelvis diagnosed in the ED.
I also support your point about never charging for an ambulance. Frequent caller teams need to be better resourced but gaps in mental health services and social care sadly have a knock on effect on ambulance services.
It's also sad that people are so oblivious to either absolute poverty, not having any money whatsoever available or being in a controlling abusive relationship that deprives someone to access to any financial means.
I'm glad the OP got sorted out and wish them an uncomplicated recovery.

For those saying you couldn't be typing if you broke your leg, (I have read the thread, I know the op has). My mum slipped down one step at home at about 11pm one night hurting both ankles. I went round 12 hours later (not knowing about the accident) and she was hobbling round etc. After 2 hours of persuasion I got her to minor injuries and she had broken one ankle and badly sprained the other. She had been on FB etc, making herself cups of tea, up and down stairs. So posting on mumsnet would have been perfectly do able for her!

Flisspaps , yes i have seen that OP has managed to get to hospital , and unfortunately has broken her ankle , I ( and I am sure every one on here ) wishes her a speedy recovery.
I did not mean that she should suffer at home until DP came home , just that if there was a alternative to calling a ambulance then it would be better if she could use it .

I was in a very similar situation last year when broke a bone in my foot, I called a local taxi company ( I dont use taxis much so its not like they knew me ) and explained the situation and they agreed to take me to the nearest hospital . they were very understanding

I broke my elbow but could still use my arm as I was not in excruciating agony. Posting online (it was before Facebook etc had been invented) would have been perfectly possible.

I was once rushed into hospital in an ambulance and kept overnight. The next day I asked to use the phone (again this was about 18years ago and mobiles were less common) to call a taxi but the nurse said ‘we’ll arrange it!’ I thought she meant they’d call a taxi. Vehemently the driver turned up I asked if he could go past a cash point so I could lift the fare but he said it was free passenger transport.

I know this is now a old thread but I find myself in a virtual identical position except I woke up in pain and unable to weight bare. I will prob give it a couple of days and then seek advice from 111, but that's not what I wanted to say, here what I wanted to say.... There are a lot of people o. Here who don't have to. Live from one benifit or paychk to another, I do it sounds like u. Might do to. The point being they can't conceive of having no money in the middle of the month for us even a couple of quid can be hard to come by at times. Additionally it is not adnirnal to be socially isolated, and have no one to turn to, I do not.

I think a lot if ppl in here gave you a very hard time when it was nit warrented and they should be assamed of them selves I. Myself are disappointed d in them.

Much love hope it got sorted, katie

@user1497718723

You have twisted it. If it was broken you wouldn't be typing as you'd be in severe pain. Keep it elevated and ice it

This is wrong...

Pain perception varies massively.

I drove on a broken ankle... The sheer shock protected me from pain for a while... Later pain was indescribable.