To wonder how people use taxis to get to a&e

[User6778]

Whenever I’ve needed to go to a&e I’ve even been bleeding a lot or been being sick due to an illness. Aibu to wonder how people use taxis as would imagine the driver wouldn’t take too kindly to vomit in their car.

I've taken a taxi when I had vomited an ocean of blood, because i knew i would probably die if it happened again, and had been told I wouldn't get an ambulance.

I kept tissue over my mouth, and hoped for the best.

You really can't work it out ? You honestly can't fathom that there are a multitude of conditions that legitimately need emergency care that do not emit bodily fluids?

Call me cynical but I'm going to guess you can in fact imagine it, you just preferred to do the faux head tilt pseudo innocent confused post in order to crow about the superiority of the seriousness of the illnesses you would burden A and E with?

Feeling a bit down lately and needed a virtue boost to reassure you that you were valid?

I work in a taxi office and we get plenty of calls to a&e and urgent care centres, one last night actually for a broken finger.
If customers explain to us about any potential sickness/labour pains/bleeding at the time of booking, we send a driver who we know can deal with that sort of thing. We’d ask the customer to provide paper towels, a towel or anything else they might need. Most of our cars have sickness bags provided just in case.
If all that fails then there is a £50 soiling charge.

Is it any different to getting in a car either your own family car or a neighbours car?

Vomiting take a freezer bag or bucket, Blood use towels.

Surely that's common sense, and much better than waiting for an ambulance when there's probably not much they can do in certain circumstances.

There’s more chance of a drunk customer vomiting in a taxi than there is a person going to a&e.

I live alone and have no car. A taxi is the best option. If I got sick during the trip, I'd have to find the money to pay for it to be cleaned. Hasn't happened yet.

Same for me.
There simply isn't anyone to give me a lift, so it's well over an hour, on the bus (assuming it's during peak time) or half hour in a taxi.

I’ve been with a head injury, no bleeding but slurred speech. A fractured foot and a fractured elbow, all of which had no bleeding or vomiting so it’s very easy to understand. Last time I took DH he had a kidney stone and was a severe pain but not vomiting either.

I’ve mostly been to A&E for things where taxis have been fine like broken bones, dislocations, there was an incident where DP needed stitching up and was bleeding but he just held a thick wad of gauze to it (it’s about 10 minutes by car/taxi from where we live to the hospital). I’ve walked to the urgent care clinic from the office with a bladder infection as well.

I've been twice in taxis. Both times told to "make my own way to a&e" by 111.

No blood or vomiting involved.

Op why are you asking and what do you think people should do?

Not everyone has a car,
If someone is ill its probably not appropriate for them to drive,
If there are children who need looking after it's better for one parent to stay at home with the children. A&E isn't the place for a family outing.
Sometimes small children are better being comforted in mums arms than crying in a car seat with a stressed out mum trying to drive.

Taxi may well be the most appropriate way to get to hospital.

Maybe some people who attend a&e were not vomiting or bleeding profusely? It stands for accident and emergency, not aortic-oozing & emetic-issues.

Twice I’ve been driven to A&E haemorrhaging with a MC because it was quicker than waiting for an ambulance - once sitting on an empty fertiliser sack, the other on some plastic wrapping! Even with bodily fluids there are ways to avoid ruining the upholstery…

I took a black cab to A&E in Glasgow once after falling on my face in the street and cutting my chin very badly. The driver had a supply of cloths in his cab for exactly this eventuality.

Well if you don’t drive or have someone else to give you a lift how else would you get there for a non ambulance emergency?

@LadyJJ

I drove myself to A&E, I did feel shit but I'm from a "DON'T MAKE A FUSS" Family. I had sepsis from a perforated bowel, I'd deffo get a taxi next time if only to save on the parking fines .

Wow!

I once hsd to use a taxi to return from A and E. I had an eye injury and couldn't open my eyes at all and had been given liquid morphine but was still in severe pain. No choice bit to take an hour long taxi journey.

The driver was amazing. He stopped 3 times and held my hair back while I was sick on a grass verge and then since I couldn't open my eyes took me to the front door and opened it for me.

I gave him a very large tip and called the taxi company next day to thank him. Never saw what he looked like but he had a very kind voice and kept telling me sick passengers were very different from drunk ones.

I used a taxi for 3rd degree burns. Why do you think anyone who needs a&e is either bleeding or vomiting?

I've injured my arm before and had to go in a taxi as I couldn't hold the steering wheel! There was no blood or vomiting. If you're vomiting did you really need A&E? If there's bleeding to the point you need to go to A&E, you should really be phoning an ambulance.

I've taken a taxi to A&E three times, twice for my kids when 111 said to go, once they had vomited at home so I took a bucket but they weren't sick in the car, and once when I broke my ankle. I don't drive so it's a quick and practical way to get there. I found the drivers to be a nice combination of sympathetic but also calm/not that interested which helped me calm down on the way. Why are you asking? My DD as a baby was sick for an entire hour long taxi ride once at the start of our holiday. The driver was very sympathetic and told us stories of his children. We offered to pay to cover cleaning costs but he only accepted a small tip.

I've been in ambulance twice. Once was extreme bleeding (miscarriage) and the other was dislocated knee and couldn't walk.

Taxi with broken arm.
Lifts for stitches etc.

Took my son in a taxi to hospital when it turned out he had salmonella poisoning (takes a long time to get diagnosis).

He was so dehydrated he wasn't being sick anymore but I took a towel just in case.

Taxi driver didnt blink an eye at taking an ill 3 year old to hospital at 9pm.

I’ve been to A and E in the small hours of the morning by taxi. I don’t drive and, given that this was fairly early in the COVID crisis, ambulances would have been at full stretch. I turned out to have a strangulated hernia and was in surgery within a few hours and ended up spending nearly a week in hospital. Although it was a condition which had involved vomiting I didn’t in the cab!
My feeling is that most cabbies, particularly London black cabbies and particularly when the patient is a child, have a sort of unwritten code
that you help out those in need.

I nicked an artery in a toe so a lot of blood but not 999 worthy. Wrapped foot in a towel, stuck bin bag over the top, called cab. I don't think they even noticed

Funnily enough, when I broke my elbow coming off my bike, the ambulance man who happened to be there (with another patient in his ambulance) insisted I needed an ambulance. He never even suggested I should get a taxi or phone a friend.