AIBU to think ambulances aren’t taxis and she could have taken a taxi to the hospital?

[12FreeRangeEggs]

Friend fell over whilst out walking her dog, she was in a country park car park when the accident happened. Good samaritans in the vicinity helped her. Her leg was sore, but not obviously broken. Unable to drive back home, she called her sister to come and collect her.

Sister drove her to sister’s house, gave her tea and cake and they watched an episode of The Crown together before Googling the leg injury and realising Friend’s leg was possibly broken.

They called 999 and asked for an ambulance to take Friend to hospital. They were told the wait was 2.5 hours. They waited an hour, then realised they didn’t want to be in A&E too late at night so Sister drove Friend to A&E.

Leg was broken. Leg was plastered. Friend was home 5 hours later.

All is good BUT i am wondering why they rang for an ambulance. I have lived all over the world, including Switzerland, which offers arguably some of the best health care. Yet i would never have called an ambulance for a broken leg. Even in Switzerland, unless you need a Dr / paramedic on site, for example car crash, unable to breathe, heart problems, or an injured child, you take yourself to hospital.

DH had a motorbike accident in Switzerland and broke his arm. The police dropped him off at the hospital as they were driving back in a similar direction. There was no question of calling an ambulance, DH was conscious and his injuries were not life threatening. But in the UK people treat ambulances like taxis for the sick and injured.

AIBU to think this?

Surely we should change the way we use the NHS in order to save it? Ambulances should not be A&E taxis.

My partner called an ambulance for a broken wrist because it was totally at a wrong angle (needed extensive pinning) and he was screaming in pain and trying not to pass out, plus he was alone in the house at the time. Totally the right call. Someone with a fibula fracture who can put pressure on the leg, watch Netflix and drink tea could be helped to a car and driven. No need for an ambulance. Broken bones have a huge range of severity.

A taxi that is halfway to hospital and calls an ambulance if a medical emergency happens is still closer to emergency medical attention that someone whose medical emergency happens at home and whose ambulance is coming from the hospital.

Ambulances don't always come from the hospital.

I agree. When I broke my foot I got a friend to drive me, if a lift wasn't available I would have gotten a taxi. I called a ambulance for my OH not long ago for chest pains, that is an emergency not a broken bone (unless it's a severe break)

I was in McDonalds once and a woman had fallen in the carpark, she was sat eating her food, talking fine, seemed alright considering, staff had brought her out a ice pack, her friend called a ambulance, as she WALKED to the ambulance with the paramedics her friend said she would drive after her and meet her at the hospital, I couldn't believe my ears.

Im sure people think if they go in a ambulance they will be seen quicker, which isn't the case, unless it's a actual serious emergency.

@stucknoue, I fucking hope that somebody calls an ambulance whilst another is already doing CPR, then gets the defib out whilst still on the phone, otherwise you'll just as likely have to get an ambulance to move the body in any case.

Using one isn't like TV where the person gasps awake and can then run from the bad guys/big angry Grizzlies/leap off a building five minutes later.

The problem is breaks can be misleading. Adrenaline could get you through the first half hour and then you might start to feel the pain. I'd guess something like that happened with your friend. I doubt she just suddenly decided to Google 'is my leg broken?' A change in the pain or a change in her leg, range of movement, etc, probably prompted the Googling and as a PP said they wouldn't have sent an ambulance if they didn't think it appropriate.

I hate threads like this. I always worry they'll stop people who need ambulances calling for them because, let's be honest, entitled people will still call for an ambulance. The only ones who'll reconsider calling, are the ones who struggle to assess their own needs and to put themselves first.

I'm in two minds about this, she did watch Netflix and have cake before seeking advice as you've mentioned and so the ambulance wasn't really needed as she didn't need immediate pain relief/medical intervention and also her sister was able to drive her there much faster and without taking up a needed resource, but then again broken bones can turn nasty quickly and really should be immobilized to prevent any further damage.

It's also not as easy as some people are suggesting to see how unwell/injured a person is by looking at their behaviour; i had an appendicitis when I was 15 and was sat in the waiting room with my friend talk8ng and laughing - I was in pain and did need my appendix removed, it was a medical emergency but I was still able to laugh and chat and to look at me you wouldn't have thought I was that poorly, I was also quite talkative when I had very severe pre-eclampsia and sepsis, I'm sure if people had seen me during those times they would have thought I was wasting time but I was in fact critically ill. I was also one of those people screaming in labour with my first because I was completely alone, had 0 breaks between my contractions and wasn't even offered paracetemol let alone anything else and so again that comment was a bit harsh.

I'm a paramedic and honest to God, this kind of shit is one of the reasons that ambulance services are losing staff faster than they can train and replace them. I left front line practice and now work elsewhere, in no small part because I got sick and tired of pandering to idiots who squandered very limited and very precious resources like this.

She rang for ambulance for a broken leg which is a low grade emergency yet when your giving birth your expected to have someone drive you or deliver at home and I would say that is higher up on the emergency list

Agree that not all breaks are equal! Someone ok to have tea and cake and watch tv really should be fine to go to A&E without an ambulance involved. In contrast, DS2 broke his arm at school a few years ago and the break was so severe that they called an ambulance for an arm - the bone had to be stabilised by the paramedics before he could be moved at all.

My mum called an ambulance at 3am for my elderly, frail dad a few weeks ago when he fell in the bathroom. They waited for several hours for it to arrive, with him lying on the floor all that time, because the ambulance service was so busy that night. They were at A&E for nearly 10 hours before he was admitted. This was 7 weeks ago and we now know that he’s never coming home. ☹️ The NHS has been truly amazing to us but the waiting times were just ridiculous due to the idiots calling an ambulance and sitting in A&E with a wonky eyebrow or a splinter in their toe.

I'm on the fence about this one. I fell and called an ambulance because I thought I'd broken my leg. When I got to a&e (calm, talking normally) the nurse was fairly dismissive saying if it was broken it would need a quick plaster cast and off home.

As it happens I'd broken it in 3 places, dislocated all three ankle bones and had tonnes of nerve and tissue damage. I was in hospital immobilised for 2 days before the first surgery and stayed in another week before the second surgery. If I'd tried to make my own way I would have absolutely destroyed it (it still gives me grief as it is, arthritis isn't fun). So you can't really judge.

I reckon I'd call an ambulance if I suspected my leg was broken, and try to manage into A & E via with a suspected break to an upper body limb.

Of course, I say that now, might feel very differently with a broken arm and the bone poking through the skin...

We're 30 odd minutes from hospital here. Midwives were adamant that if you're on screaming labour with frequent contractions you should call an ambulance because of the risk of distracted driver crashing as much as roadside birth...

Of course you can call an ambulance for a broken leg. Ffs.

Most people can go in a car or taxi. True, but getting out of the car into the hospital is the problem - no parking at A&E (so can't help the person into A&E and then go and park the car), and parking too far away to be able to get the person into A&E.

Yanbu. They are not taxis.
But there are different types of ambulance emergencies and someone presenting with chest pain in the same area will get the ambulance she was waiting for, so she gets pushed to the back of the que.
That's how I understand it anyway.

She rang for ambulance for a broken leg which is a low grade emergency yet when your giving birth your expected to have someone drive you or deliver at home and I would say that is higher up on the emergency list
Giving birth is mostly not an emergency, though. You've had 9 months to prepare for it and it's (usually) not an unexpected event. 9/10 times out of ten you do not need an ambulance.

i'd say get an ambulance if its definitely unsafe for yourself or someone else to take you there, if a bone is poking out of the skin then I would consider it but in the situation in this thread i wouldn't have used it.

I had bad chest pains last year and 111 tried to send me one and i told them i d like a second opinion as i didn't want that unless a clinician agreed it was necessary as I didn't believe I was having a heart attack and the doctor they put me through to agreed i didn't need one. Turns out it was a broken rib and the adrenaline allowed me to walk into a&e myself which probably saved me a wait considering how close the hospital is to where i live and helped someone that needed it have that ambulance.

@MereDintofPandiculation you're not wrong - I took DS to.a&e this week with breathing trouble. It took 40 minutes of circling the car park to get parked. No street parking anywhere nearby and the cold air outside made him even worse so I didn't want a long walk.

Most women in labour do not need to take an ambulance to hospital. If there are complications, then of course call for an ambulance, but some expectant parents just call for an ambulance for an average labour which is absolutely unnecessary.

DH got to A&E with a broken arm in his boss's car (work injury) but only because boss splinter it (vets so within skill set even if wrong species). No way would he have made it conscious without a splint which most people wouldn't have been able, safe or confident to do... so in the absence of skilled colleagues would have been an ambulance job!

My friends 90 year old mother had a fall a few nights ago. It took 7 hours for an ambulance to get to her. Sadly she passed away a few days later. Services are stretched beyond breaking point now. Your friend was beyond selfish in my opinion. If she can sit and stuff her face with cake she can get a lift / taxi to a and e.

CurlyhairedAssassin
so you don't feel the pain that others felt.. good for you.

It doesn't make others pain any less. It's as stupid as saying that you had a vaginal birth so people are wimps for needing a c-section.

You didn't feel their pain, it doesn't make you superior, at best it makes you lucky.

Of course you need an ambulance for a broken leg. The issue is that it might be quicker to find someone to give you a lift, but it's really not a good idea to squeeze in a car.

If any of my kids breaks something, the first thing I do is call for an ambulance!

I've had previous first aid training in treating people in remote locations (mountainsides etc) which means taking decisions on whether someone can safely be walked/carried out down to a safer location.

Some broken legs absolutely do need an ambulance - a broken femur (thigh) is a serious injury which can cause dangerous amounts of blood loss. Moving someone with an non-immobilised femur could cause the sharp bone ends to go through the femoral artery and kill them. You'd want a paramedic there to stick some clotting powder in any open wound, use pressure as necessary etc to stop the bleed, and to properly immobilise the leg to prevent the bones from doing more damage. I think I read that something like 40% of broken femur patients need transfusions. Also we were taught that any accident with enough force to break the femur can also indicate likely pelvic injury too.

Even with a lower leg break where there's a lower risk of massive bleeding, blood flow can be compromised, leading to the potential loss of the leg, so again you'd want to straighten it and immobilise it, before transporting someone. And straightening and immobilising someone without decent pain relief would be traumatic.

Any open leg fracture you'd probably want to get an ambulance too.

A broken arm, on the other hand, assuming there was good circulation, I'd probably stick it in a sling and drive.

My friend is a doctor in Switzerland. She does not agree with your assessment about the healthcare there being good.