How long would you HOPE it would take for 999 ambulance call takers to answer the phone?

[nevereveragainneverever]

For many years I’ve had a recurring nightmare where something bad happens in the dream and I need to call an ambulance - but in my nightmare I get put on hold for ages while waiting for the ambulance service to pick up the phone.

Last night my nightmare came true.

I had to call 999 at 4.30am after getting some stern advice from my designated medical helpline to do so.

The 999 person asks which service I require. “Ambulance”, says I.

She tried to put me through but then said they were very busy ....and I was being placed on hold for the next available operator.

Now here's the thing; if you had a loved one who was seriously ill or injured / having a cardiac arrest / a child who was choking / not breathing etc - how long do you think you would reasonably have to be on hold to get the ambulance service to actually take your call so you could tell them about it?

I honestly thought it would be 20-30 seconds. After all they had no idea what I was calling about and whether someone was in grave danger.

Well….it was SIX AND A HALF MINUTES!!!!! 😩😠😲. On hold!!!! Before they even picked up the phone to ask if the patient was breathing!!

I am still so shocked by this. I’m NOT blaming them - that's not the point of this thread: they’re just so busy, I think understaffed by Covid and other issues and underfunding .

The 999 ambulance call handler took note of my symptoms and said it was a priority case due to chest pain, issues breathing, worrying oxygen sats, other symptoms.. and my underlying serious medical condition (cancer patient on chemotherapy, subsequently admitted to hospital).

The ambulance then took 2.5 hours to arrive!! On a priority call!

Again, I’m NOT blaming them; they had been delayed because they were flagged down in the road when en route to me by desperate parents whose child was sick…and whose own ambulance was delayed. It transpired that the ambulance they should have got had been commandeered by an aggressive, drunk 25 year old man who was demanding a trip to hospital by ambulance for his injured fist - that he got by punching a wall.

You couldn’t make it up! The crew did the right thing in stopping for the child in my view and again I'm not blaming the crew (who were fabulous) and who explained they have only had a total of ten minutes at base - in the last six months! The rest of the time it’s call out after call out - and he said it’s so often time wasters.

I despair. And thought you would like to know. I don't know what the solution is, but wanted to share my experience.

Rant over. Thank you for listening.

I know someone who’s brother collapsed and they rang 999
It took 3 minutes to answer and the crew where flagged down by some muppet who had toothache
They sent someone else out but my friends brother had died in the time it took to get to him
They will never know if he could have been saved or not if they’d get to him earlier

I would expect / hope that a service designed specifically to respond to energencies (sometimes life or death) would have an initial responce time or seconds. As in, the caller is put straight through. Otherwise it's not really fit for purpose it it? I don't know what the solutiin is.

I hope you're ok.

You would hope for speed, but as you say the service is on its knees.

Once you do get through you have to be at deaths door for an ambulance to be sent.

I’ve also just read something about how desperate they are for medical staff. Perhaps if they didn’t ask for tens of thousands for people to train and hadn’t been running the service into the ground with penny pinching staffing numbers, appalling work conditions and low pay for years, we wouldn’t be in this position.

I had no idea you can just flag down an ambulance 😳

@TomorrowSomething

I would expect / hope that a service designed specifically to respond to energencies (sometimes life or death) would have an initial responce time or seconds. As in, the caller is put straight through. Otherwise it's not really fit for purpose it it? I don't know what the solutiin is.

I hope you're ok.

This says exactly what I wanted to.

I understand why the wait time is much longer than anyone would like or expect. However, understanding the pressure of the call handlers doesn't help when it's you having to make a life / death call, and being stuck on hold.

I hope you're ok OP 💐

Wow that is bad! Why are ambulances allowed to stop if someone flags them? Surely they'd be redirected on route if something more urgent came up! They shouldn't just stop.

It took maybe 30 seconds to connect for me earlier today. The call handler warned me that even for a blue light emergency, it could take up to two hours and if possible, to take my mam to the hospital myself.

I wasn't able to take her myself and the ambulance came within 30 minutes.

The fucking government needs to start throwing money at the NHS to hopefully improve things.

That is terrifying. I always assumed it would be a straight answer. I'm just imagining one of my children in danger and being on hold for all that time . I hope you're ok.

I watched an episode of ambulance and an operator could hear that the person was with someone who wasn’t breathing because they were shouting whilst on hold and they were somehow able to skip the queue.

Hope you’re ok OP

I’m sorry this happened to you.

Yes the ambulance service is on its knees. The conservatives have been running the nhs into the ground for years and this is the consequence.

My 91 year old father recently had to wait 12 hours for an ambulance to come out, which was requested by his gp following an epileptic seizure. The paramedics called my parents throughout this time to apologise for the delay, it wasn't their fault at all they were just swamped. It will only get worse, the NHS is on its knees.

This is what happens after years of underfunding, cuts and underpaying staff.

Ambulance is on at 9pm. It’s a good indication of what’s happening around the country. Last week they showed that the North West Ambulance Service call handlers were answering calls for London and Scotland. They literally can’t cope. It’s just horrendous.

So how in God's name are drunks with injured hands and people with toothache just allowed to commandeer ambulances?? Surely the crew have a right to say "not now mate, we have a higher priority callout to attend"? And if not, why??!!!

There are several times I've had to call 999 for the police in an emergency and kept getting the busy tone. Not sure if it was my network or their service not coping, but I remember the horror and the cold sweat when I realised no-one was coming because I couldn't get through.

I’ve had to call them a few times pre covid and they’ve always answered instantly and come really quickly.

However I had to call them a couple of months ago and had the same situation as you. The phone kept ringing after I asked for ambulance. My husband was unconscious on the floor after having a diabetic hypo. They asked if I could bring him to a&e myself and when I said no they asked if I could get a family member or friend to bring him. Not sure how we were going to transport a 13 stone unconscious man, I also had 2 small kids in the house.

The other ridiculous thing is that we could have avoided calling an ambulance if the GP would prescribe the injection which stops the hypo but they’ve stopped doing so as too expensive.

The problem is that it's totally abused. We need to charge people for abusing the NHS.

That’s really scary OP, I would assume less than a minute. Six and a half minutes is really worrying, I can’t stop thinking about if it was DD choking or seriously injured and not being able to get help.

When my late partner was terminally ill we had a really hard time getting an ambulance out. In the end my friend rang up and told the call handler she wouldn't be hanging up till she saw an ambulance outside. We have three hospitals near us. DP was being treated at Norwich. The ambulance crew who walked in were from Ipswich. One of them looked at the paperwork and said "Ohhh Norwich!" I looked over my glasses and asked if he had a problem with that? He looked a little shocked and replied that he didn't. I then said right let's get on with treating my partner!

It’s terrifying. I’ve only had to call 999 twice in my life and both times the ambulance was there within minutes, but that was several years ago now.

I would happily pay more tax/NI etc if I felt confident that the money would actually get to where it’s needed but this government is so utterly corrupt it’s a complete disaster. I don’t really know how the nhs is still afloat these days.

This is sadly getting more and more common place. I’ve had to call 999 ,101 or live chat with police a fair bit in last 18mths.

999 has started having waits on it. 101 typically takes 45 mins to over a hour. Live chat used to be instant but now takes about 10/15 for agent to join.

Even if more handlers were recruited there are only so many ambulances , beds and police.

It is terrifying. I've been told to call an ambulance if my DS doesn't improve with 10 inhaler puffs and at the moment I genuinely think I'd be quicker doing the 30 minutes in the car.

@Cuddlyrottweiler

The problem is that it's totally abused. We need to charge people for abusing the NHS.

It’s not. It’s because there’s not enough ambulances, not enough paramedics and there’s often a queue of ambulances waiting outside A&E to offload.

When DS2 worked in A&E he’d often text me to tell me he turned up to a night shift to find 18 or 20 ambulances queuing outside. Some waited 6 or 8 hours. They can’t be there and attending emergencies at the same time.

I once called for DS (febrile convulsion / high temperature / delirious) and I didn't even get through to anyone. It just cut off after a message saying call volumes were very high.

They called back 15 minutes later had my number from the call placed

The ambulance wait was 4h.

By this time DS seemed to come round a bit, my MIL (retired nurse) was en route etc.

My mum collapsed a year ago and I cannot imagine how my dad and sister would have coped if no-one had answered their 999 call. They had to perform CPR until the ambulance(s) arrived under the guidance of the call handler.

Mum didn't survive but at least my dad and sister know they did all the could for her.

If I was calling because of my asthma I’d be dead in those six and a half minutes.

Knowing that at an RTC police and fire brigade can't get an ambulance - heaven help the rest of us.

I just can't believe that there isn't some huge sanction for timewasters, like a grand fine or something. Hope you are recovering well op, that wait must have been terrifying