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.

@Alwayswonderedwhy

Why are ambulances stopping for people flagging them down if they're on a call. Stopping for someone with toothache or a drunk seems crazy. I can't believe they actually stop and let them get in the ambulance.

Because these people don't say "I've got toothache". They say things like I'm having a stroke, I can't breathe etc etc. They know just what to say

I waited four minutes for them to pick up, whilst doing chest compressions on a resident. I also waited eight hours overnight for the ambulance to come to someone frail who'd fallen, broken their arm then were going into shock. Tbh, nothing surprises me anymore.

The state things are in currently mean that at times some ambulance trusts are only sending immediate responses to cardiac arrest or patients triaged to be at risk of going into cardiac arrest, and that is all. Everything else gets passed to a control room paramedic, nurse or advanced practitioner for further "interrogation" and only then if the patient is deemed a high priority will an ambulance be dispatched.

It is f*cking terrifying!!

Every paramedic, call taker and manager will likely live in the area they cover and have loved ones, including very young children. The situation is dire and we are scared too. Don't get ill and don't hurt yourself!!

The system is fucked, the people working in it are on their knees.

Mental health care needs more funding - paramedics and police are spending so much of their time babysitting people who really should be receiving in patient mental health care but that’s non existent.

There’s issues with the service itself though - my grandpa had a serious vaccine reaction earlier this year - uncontrollable vomiting, fever, disorientation, incontinence, coupled with diabetes,

We called 999, recorded message said basically don’t call us unless your dying, use NHS online/111,

call 111, wait time is 45 mins but you can live chat in 5. Live chat symptoms, live chat says call 999

Call 999, get through and explain to get told we should be using 111, tell them 111 has said call 999, “oh, well it’s not a 999 issue, please call the GP ”

Call the GP, get the receptionist, go through the symptoms again, Receptionist puts us straight through to GP. GP says we should call 999…at which point I’m ashamed to say I lost my temper and told them 999 had said it was their problem to deal with.

GP called and got us an ambulance, grandpa was admitted for a week.

I can see how people who can’t advocate for themselves and don’t have family around just die.

I called 111 yesterday for an appointment for my son who is 1 and had a temp of 41, GP refused to see him because of covid. Within 10 minutes there was an ambulance at my door.. completely and totally unnecessary and a waste of time and resources. I specifically requested the didn't send one as it wasn't an emergency but because I said he was sucking in slightly at the ribs they sent an ambulance, I explained I was happy to take him somewhere I'd just rant to try and get advice on where was acceptable to take him due to his symptoms.. I was absolutely furious! Last year I sat and watched my grandad die while we waited over an hour for the ambulance to come.

The system is completely broken! There should also be penalties for abusing the system!!

@DaphneDeloresMoorhead thank you. Hugs coming back your way, although they might understandably be a delay in reaching you!

@FrankiesKnuckle, I know they types of calls you're talking about, I think it was @BashfulClam that said on one of the 999 on the frontline type programmes that couldn't refuse to take a patient that didn't need to go in. I'm more than happy to say on the radio the current offload time at your nearest appropriate hospital is 9 hours and let them make a better informed decision shall we say? The only good thing is that in our service theres been a lot less road staff versus control staff lately, meaning we're all in the shit together!

@TractorAndHeadphones the funding doesnt come from local councils it comes from the government so there should be zero bearing on it being an affluent or poorer area. We get no funding from council tax either unlike police and fire as we are not a classified emergency service, essential yes, but emergency apparently not!

Nothing worse than walking on to a shift with patients still on your screen that you left there when you went home last night! And you have that sinking realisation they might still be there at the end of your 12 hour shift and probably when you come in tomorrow too. These cases are generally elderly callers fallen with no injury but with care and nursing homes and home carer companies that have implemented no lift policies they have to wait for a amb to come. Some local councils are putting in falls teams which are a godsend in current times.

@DigitalGhost

I had to call an ambulance for my 1 yo DD. It happened mid way through the last england euro game. Strangely they weren't busy at all at the time, they even said as much when they arrived in less than 10 min. I mean thank god they did but it does say alot about the people that take the piss.

That’s because it was a completely abnormal event. Most people were sitting down watching the telly, not driving about, doing DIY, playing football in the park, jumping about on trampolines etc. After the match when the pubs were kicking out it would’ve been mega busy.

DS2 has done a couple of Christmas Days in A&E. It’s incredibly quiet because, again, most people are just at home.

Of course time wasters aren’t turning out either but there’s more to it than that.

The system is completely broken! There should also be penalties for abusing the system!!

Yup then when police get these people to court they give them no punishment whatsoever abd it's back to square one.

@Annoyedanddissapointed

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

Me neither, surely they can’t just stop?!

@Annoyedanddissapointed

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

You can’t. I could imagine that if someone was waiting for an ambulance and heard the siren in the distance, they may well be outside their house to show the paramedics where to go, and wave the ambulance down. If the job they were going to was nearby, then I can see that they would stop at that point.

Because these people don't say "I've got toothache". They say things like I'm having a stroke, I can't breathe etc etc. They know just what to say

But how do they say it BEFORE the ambulance stops?

I never called 999 in my life then I had to phone them twice in 5 days, first time I was on hold 12 minutes, 2nd time it was 10! Both were fairly serious incidents but I was shocked that I was on hold for so long

This is why I don't understand comments such as "the NHS is the envy of the world". I'm not in the UK but the couple of times I have called an ambulance the call was answered immediately and it arrived within minutes - for falls in elderly people. I know that is only two instances, but it really is what happens most of the time.

@DaphneDeloresMoorhead the ambulance service nationally now have a linked up system so we can indeed process calls for each other which get coded and then sent down the link to the correct service dependant on postcode. We get the address and the main complaint, mame etc, but we don't always get anything that's been free typed.

Brilliant system if one service is under great demand due to say a large incident, but fairly useless when all services are under demand as basically the extra call assessors we are employing are then answering calls for other services rather than our own.

I agree with Neenaw999

the system is under so much strain having been underfunded by the Tories for the last 10 years.
There are fewer acute hospital beds available nationally (ie the Tories have made the NHS smaller in terms of hospital beds).
There is a shortage of GPs nationally.
Ambulances can not offload their patients because no beds are available. patients have to wait in ambulances for many hours sometimes meaning that ambulance is unable to go on another call.
There is a social care crisis.

It all makes the perfect storm.

Having worked in the NHS for many years shouting at staff does not help you get the best care. We are very understanding of people who are frightened or in pain but just being plain rude isn't helpful to staff when they are short staffed and probably haven't had a break for hours.

It is frustrating. It isn't the fault of the person in front of you usually.

Stopping voting Tory would be helpful - this is what everyone has voted for.

People should be fined for deliberate misuse of the services .

I had to call 999 last weekend as a fight broke out outside a neighbour’s house after a party. A lad was basically set upon by three others. It took eight minutes for the call to be answered and they actually asked if I felt comfortable going out to help the lad as it was going to be “quite a while” before anyone could attend.

@AntiMaskersAreTwats

I struggled to reply to this thread as just talking about this makes me feel physically sick. 3 years ago I had to call an ambulance for my 6 year olds who had broken their collarbone and was stuck lying face down unable to move screaming in agony. It took the ambulance 4 hours to arrive. She was going in and out of consciousness. I thought she was dying. I wasn’t even on hold with 999 at that point, they left me too it as she was screaming so obviously not near death. Once they finally came we were halfway to a hospital when we stumbled upon a crashed car on the motorway blocking the fastlane. No one there so they had obviously been drunk or something and run off. We had to wait on the motorway with the lights flashing so no one hit the crashed car until the police came to make it safe. 2 hours we sat there. I was terrified for my child in case someone didn’t stop in time and hit the ambulance. It was one of the worst nights of my life. Once in A&E a brusque nurse who hardly spoke English kept manhandling my child and making her scream. In the end I had to have a full meltdown and stop anyone touching her until she had had some proper pain relief. She was only properly cared for once I had completely exploded and we were moved to the children’s ward. She got good care there but I was left with no food, shower or change of clothes for the 5 days we were in. Our NHS is absolutely shit and I am terrified everytime we have to use it.

Wouldn't a need e been better for that and taking her yourself?

Regarding the flagging down of ambulances - it happens a fair bit. It's usually a case of they've already called, see an ambulance approaching and start windmilling wildly thinking it's their ambulance. These jobs are mostly outside, hence the flagging down. They could range from an RTC, an assault or collapse or an imminent birth. Basically, it could be anything. Personally, I couldn't just drive on by but it does depend on the call that I would currently be on. A quick assessment and decision - multitasking radioing of a delay etc
I had one once where a man was frantically waving at us next to a car.
Inside was his 7 year old son that had stopped breathing. It was the right thing to do as is often the case.

I hope that's enlightened you a little bit.

@Neenaw999 it just annoyed me so much that the ambulance went there as a priority (life in danger type call) and she was sitting eating her fucking dinner!!! She exactly described reflux, called it in as ‘choking’ ffs. We waited 3 hours for an ambulance when my disabled father fell and had a head injury. As he was on the floor we couldn’t get him up and all the time absolute wallopers like her are finishing their dinner then going to A&E!

We called 999 for an ambulance for my father four weeks ago at 6am as it was clear he was having a heart attack. We were told after waiting on the phone that it would be better and quicker if we took him by car which we did. Unfortunately, Dr's have said that the delay has caused severe damage and he now is classed as having heart failure and has had many set backs in his recovery.

It still upsets me when I think of how he had to walk in to A&E clutching his chest alone as no one was allowed in to speak for him even when he was unable due to the pain.

You always think an ambulance will come in situations such as this but the system is so broken and covid has just added another angle to it.

OP i completely agree.
Both my dad and my Nan could well still be here if the ambulance had of got to us quicker. 2 hour wait whilst having a heart attack.
The “what ifs” kill me inside daily. Something needs to change.

While it doesn't help the problem right now, I think first aid should be taught it all schools.

But its frightening at the moment, I keep reading story after story of people who had had falls and lying there for 6 plus hours and their family can't move them and get them in a car.

For us, in an emergency, we could get to our nearest hospital in 40 minutes (walking) but that might be quicker than the ambulance.

I heard on the news today, someone was talking about this, their father had had a heart attack and his heart stopped, while they tried CPR, this only works in the short term, they need something more, while they will never know if it was because the ambulance service took so long, they think its more than likely

I think as a PP has mentioned they can override the wait time if the operator thinks it's life threatening. From watching ambulance though, some of the callers really don't warrant an ambulance.

Shit this is terrifying. I'm so anxious about my children choking, you can't wait 6 minutes for that.