Driving to a&e is quicker than an ambulance

[Pinkerbells]

I had to call 999 for my DP yesterday. (For context, it was for a reoccurring condition, and last time he had the same symptoms, he was in hospital for a month, had 2 emergency ops and spent most of his time in icu.)
The ambulance came pretty quick with 3 crew members. They did the observations and decided that yes indeed he did need to go to hospital. The conundrum came in the fact that it would be quicker for me to drive him the 30 minutes to a&e than for him to go in an ambulance, as once they got him there, unless his condition worsened, they would have to sit with him in the ambulance for 3-4 hours waiting for him to be admitted. This would make 3 crew and an ambulance unavailable for this amount of time!

I drove him in and dropped him off, and he got seen in 20 minutes. Not 3 hours, or even 1 hour. 20 minutes!!!!!

AIBU to be gobsmacked by the the whole situation, (apart from the 20 minutes, that was awesome). Don't get me wrong, I understand things have to be different because of covid, and I know the NHS are really really struggling. But surely there is a more efficient way of processing patients that frees everything up quicker than that

*job

DH took me in by car last time I had a flare up of a chronic condition..... GP always sends me in to have bloods/ECG done just in case. They've always seen me straightaway when I've said I have chest pain - never felt the need to call an ambulance, in fact because we're so rural we can be there by the time they've got out to us.

It makes me very angry watching the "Ambulance" show on BBC1 that people in London seem to treat it like calling a taxi. At least 50% of the calls seem complete wastes of time.

Make that about 80% and you'd be almost right.

Honestly - the more people who understand how desperately the nhs is struggling and needs an overhaul without is causing death or disability, the better.

Nhs is underfunded and drowning in bureaucracy. Most staff are trying their best in shitty situations.

After about a 90 minute way, I was just starting to drive DH to hospital (50 minutes away by car) when ambulance arrived. He wanted to wait for ambulance because he was in agony & they had morphine. He basically ran for the ambulance when he saw it arriving. He had 3 types of painkiller in the ambulance before he got to hospital.

Said only the gas & air really touched the pain. Morphine & IV paracetamol no good.

Dislocated shoulder, btw.

I would have drove him rather than call an ambulance out. I've taken my kids to a&e in the back of taxis a good few times.

With broken arms that needed operating on and painful crohns flare ups. Think I'd only call an ambulance if they were unconscious. My poor kids 🙈

Agree op its shocking and i hate that you cant criticise without someone saying you should drive yourself. I needed an ambulance a year ago. I had a major hemmoridge and lost 5 pints of blood in 30 minutes. I was told i was high priority i waited way over an hour for it to show up (i live 10 minutes from the hospital). When they arrived they said they had to wait in the hospital until they had more ambulances so that paramedics could stay in the hospital. And yes people told me at the time i should have got a taxi.

It is ridiculous that the system requires the ambulance to sit in the a&e queue with the patient.

I had bad chest pains once and rang 111 as I wasn't sure if I was overreacting and should speak to an out of hours GP or go to a&e.
I didn't have classic heart attack symptoms and had had a very short loss of consciousness, they wanted to send me an ambulance for a half mile journey so I got DH to drive me instead.

The triage nurse saw me almost straight away and quickly established it definitely wasn't a severe cardiac event, so I would question 111 again if they offered me an ambulance but many people wouldn't question 111s advice so I don't think it's always a patient's fault.
It turned out it was a very small rib fracture causing the pain so would have been a wasted ambulance trip.

They were telling you, in a polite way, that although your husband’s illness is serious enough to be admitted to A&E it’s not a life or death emergency. And it’s not ok to call an ambulence unless it gets to that stage.

For life and death emergencies no paramedic will begrudge you calling an ambulence, ever.

I wouldn’t have called an ambulance in the first place if he was well enough to be driven in, especially in these times.

DS2 is a nurse in A&E. Every night shift he’s been on his week there’s been at least 20 ambulances waiting outside when he’s arrived at work.

You were lucky to get an ambulance OP. The ambulance trust I work for were so busy a couple of days ago we were responding to 999 calls that came in 25hrs previously. Yes you read that right people. You have no idea how bad it is out there.

And funnily enough the people that tell us they have no way of making their own way to hospital always manage to find someone to bring them home

@Lemonpiano
I really am not sure what you mean here? Emergency departments are already shit at seeking and obtaining patient consent (unless you're unconscious/incapacitated, consent is still essential before anything happens, it's not an optional bonus), let's not encourage them to be even more abusive in the name of saving a minute or two.

Are you alleging a&e staff are being abusive and doing things against peoples will?

@Sweetmotherofallthatisholyabov

If only ever call an ambulance if I thought someone needed medical attention before I could get them to a hospital. It's the same triage system regardless of how you arrive.

Yes - I am not a healthcare professional at all, but this has always seemed obvious to me and I don’t understand why people often don’t get it. (Am a non driver and DC1 was a wheezy toddler, so we had a number of nighttime cab trips to A&E.)

@Stepintochristmas

I occasionally watch Ambulance on BBC and at least half of the call outs don't actually need an ambulance. If the patient is breathing and can walk to a car or taxi without bleeding to death then they shouldn’t be wasting resources. We need an education campaign to remind people what the emergency services are actually for.

It’s not so simple though . My mum has a poorly controlled seizure disorder - frequently has them in public , for insurance purposes 99% of businesses eg shops, supermarkets insist on calling 999 . They can last a very long time - eg she can be on the floor over an hour .

Which means we get seen by an ambulance - who most of the time help her off the floor, check her obs and into the back of a taxi home .

She must have been attended by an ambulance hundreds of times now as she’s been this way forty years .

I don’t know what the better solution is - apart from only going out of the house when absolutely essential but what kind of a life is that? I cant pick her up on the floor - she goes completely limp - or stop the seizure once it’s started . Social work aren’t interested, GP says don’t worry - just ring 999, it’s what they’re there for . We don’t have any alternative really . It’s difficult to know what to do . Have tried to hold off before but then mums been 90 mins on the floor in eg Tesco with everyone staring and staff questioning why you won’t just ring an ambulance ... it’s so bloody hard to know what to do .

If you were the person in charge of triage and you had a whole heap of people waiting which would you prioritise?

2 people with the exact same symptoms.
One is in an ambulance,lying on a bed having had some form of medical review, sats are monitored and is with medics. Probably has had some meds

Or number 2, sat on a chair in a waiting room with no monitoring, unknown sats and no investigation.

Obviously a heart attack in an ambulance is going to be prioritised over lower priority walk ins.

It seems silly that an ambulance has to wait but the only other option is that the ambulance leaves you a waiting room without handing over. That seems like a massive black hole where important things/whole people get missed.

We ended up with an ambulance last year with then 1 year old with Chickenpox, sky high temperature not responding to Calpol and interesting lung sounds (textbook crackles). The hospital/ambulance service decided it was best we came in by ambulance (having been checked and paramedics also heard lung sounds) so we could go straight to a cubicle rather than spreading Chickenpox around the waiting room. Much less convenient for us as we then had no car with us to go home so DH had to come along with other DC at 4am once the lung stuff had sorted itself out...

I think there are way too many people who have absolutely no clue about what ambulances and the A&E are there for. I was in the A&E with DS and suspected appendicitis (he couldn’t stop screaming). Next to us was a family who had brought their son in as they were concerned that he was overweight. I believe they have changed the triage now and those cases are sent to a walk in centre a block away.

I was in the A&E with a heart arrhythmia and a ridiculously low blood pressure and almost passed out in the waiting room (they were amazing, I was seen really quickly for an ECG and then taken straight to majors). There was a family there who was insisting that a lady was seen for a condition that was non life threatening and had been ongoing for weeks. They were politely, but firmly told to book an appointment with their GP.

And for the avoidance of doubt, it sounds like the OP did exactly what she was told to do.

I have always thought that arrival by ambulance was more likely to delay onward treatment than accelerate it, for reasons Fallox gave. The myth that ambulance means faster entry to A&E is extremely widespread, though.

I think that unless there is some massive holdup (like it may be now) that you will be seen at the “right time” as in when triage seems it necessary to be seen if you arrive in an ambulance.

Our family has “used” ambulances twice. Once when I collapsed due to heart issues and had a blood pressure of 60 over 40 or something like that. I have very vague recollections, but I was on a drip of something and very grateful to be there. I was then waiting in A&E for about an hour or two (whilst being checked on multiple times) before being admitted first to the A&E beds, then to the cardiac ward.

On one of the worst days of my life, my then 4 year old had a very bad fall, hit her head and vomited multiple times. The ambulance came quickly, blue lighted us to hospital and she was taken straight into the A&E where a whole paediatric team was waiting to assess her. Luckily she was fine (was admitted for two nights).

I think anyone trying to game the system is an idiot and depriving people who desperately need an ambulance of necessary medical attention.

Ambulances should only be used if an emergency, A woman I know has used ambulances 3 times for herself and daughter, as she cannot drive!!!
Her excuse is that she cannot afford a taxi and ambulances are free and that's what they are there for..... no wonder the NHS is on its knees

They are always going to tell you "no, no, you did the right thing" whether calling was warranted or not. Or maybe I watch 'Ambulance' too often.

Calling an ambulance simply because you 'don't drive' is ridiculous.