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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

110 replies

User6778 · 12/01/2022 23:36

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.

OP posts:
Roosk · 13/01/2022 07:50

Had no choice — middle of the night, London, no car, no neighbours or friends owned cars — we lived centrally on a main road with no street parking, so no one did. I had kidney stones, was in agony, 111 sent me to the urgent care centre at the Whittington, so I had to persuade the taxi driver that I wouldn’t throw up in the back. I’ve always remembered the fact that he was unsympathetic, and that when I paid with a twenty (the fare was about £12, and I hadn’t thrown up) he didn’t give me any change, and I was in so much pain I just staggered towards the entrance.

EmpressSuiko · 13/01/2022 08:05

Our hospital sent a taxi to our house to collect my DH as the ambulances would have taken too long to reach him as he wasn’t in a life threatening state and he couldn’t drive himself.

Briarshollow · 13/01/2022 08:10

Head injury: H drove me.
Postnatal complications: I drove myself.
Broken arm: taxi.

What a weird thread.

Alayalaya · 13/01/2022 08:12

Taking a taxi is standard in the US where ambulances cost a small fortune. It’s considered rude to call someone an ambulance without their permission because you’re landing them with a huge bill.

Mickarooni · 13/01/2022 08:13

Severe bleeding probably requires an ambulance to be honest. Any less serious bleeding can be stemmed with a towel or whatever. If it can’t, you might need more urgent medical help, so 999 it is.

KevinTheKoala · 13/01/2022 08:28

Ambulances are needed for people who need medical attention on route to the hospital, so if someone needs to be in A&E but is stable then a taxi is generally fine. I was laughing and joking with my friend when I had an appendicitis - it was still an appendicitis, I was still in pain and I still needed to be operated on but a taxi was more appropriate than an ambulance. I also felt completley fine when I had severe pre-eclampsia and would have been happy to take a taxi but the midwife and paramedics needed to continuously monitor me and therefore an ambulance was required. I actually needed blue lights for that trip and I certainly didn't 'look' like a seriously ill patient, again I was joking with the paramedics despite being very scared, but that didn't mean I didn't need that ambulance. I think unless you are medically trained and dealing that patient then you can't judge how ill they are based on their mode of transport.

Kendodd · 13/01/2022 08:35

Do you call an ambulance and go to A&E for vomiting op?

Emerald5hamrock · 13/01/2022 08:44

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. Wow that is a crazy waste of money and services, when DD broke her arm I put her in a buggy and sprinted, there's 2 local hospitals within 2 miles.

Kendodd · 13/01/2022 08:48

The people I worry about are those who need to get to A&E but have no money or way of getting any to pay for a cab. What do they do? You've got a sick child, it's the middle of the night so no public transport (couldn't afford it anyway) 111 tells you to go to A&E. What do they do? Do cab companies give credit?

CuntyMcBollocks · 13/01/2022 08:49

How else are you supposed to get there if you don't drive and can't get a lift?

Momicrone · 13/01/2022 08:51

Not everyone owns a car

Franklin12 · 13/01/2022 08:55

I am staggered how many people complain about waiting hours for a ambulance when there are surely other ways of getting to hospital. My neighbours banged on our door a number of years ago late at night asking whether we could take one of them to hospital. They wanted to be in the back with the other. They brought towels, bowls etc but it was fine.

Of course there are exceptions like breaking say a hip but I wonder if some of it is a sense of entitlement and that they don’t want to faff around using a car (and paying car parking fees!)

BoredZelda · 13/01/2022 08:59

I’m going to assume this is designed to bring out the frothy debate about whether people are over using A&E unnecessarily, shall we just skip to the obvious “yes, they probably are, but also, non urgent health services are in such a poor state with a lack of community care options it’s not difficult to understand why some go there in non life threatening situations”

DaisyDozyDee · 13/01/2022 09:13

I don’t understand what you think people should do instead. If you’ve got the capacity to do so, you do what you can to make sure the taxi stays clean - like taking something to be sick into or dressings and towels to contain the bleeding. If that doesn’t work, you have to pay the cleaning fee.
Most people who take a taxi to A and E either don’t have a car or aren’t in a fit state to drive, so other options are limited.

Franklin12 · 13/01/2022 09:15

I knew someone would start on the, what about people with no money and no one in the whole wide world they could ask in an emergency to help...

It’s like the school plays threads. Even though the school might request no young babies due to the crying and distractions there will always be someone who claims they have NO ONE to watch their child, no partner, no family, no baby sitter, no sibling for say 30 minutes.

PolytheneRam · 13/01/2022 09:17

I work in A&E. I'd say with more than seventy-five per cent of patients, there's no blood or vomiting on arrival.

iloveorange · 13/01/2022 09:20

We don't have a car, so when I was hemorraging from a miscarriage and they told us an ambulance would take 2+ hours, yes, we got a taxi. I put on two pads and hoped for the best, it was a short trip. The alternative might have been a lot worse.

DaisyDozyDee · 13/01/2022 09:22

@Kendodd

The people I worry about are those who need to get to A&E but have no money or way of getting any to pay for a cab. What do they do? You've got a sick child, it's the middle of the night so no public transport (couldn't afford it anyway) 111 tells you to go to A&E. What do they do? Do cab companies give credit?
If you possibly can, it’s a good plan to have the cash to get to A and E put aside ready to grab and never used for anything else. Or at least the numbers for taxi firms that accept card payments. Even if you have a car, it’s not a bad idea in case of breakdown. It would also cut down on the “I’d never drink drive (except that one time I had to take so-and-so to A and E)” stories that I’ve heard from too many people.
IHaveToSay · 13/01/2022 09:23

Surely you know the answer to this is that not every trip to a&e involves blood and vomit?
Trying to recall the trips to a&e we’ve had as a family. Off the top of my head, they’ve been for a toddler leg fracture, quinsy, an infection that turned out to be sepsis and a broken collar bone. No blood, no vomit.
Generally the last thing you want to do with a sickness bug is spread it around an a&e waiting room.

Kanaloa · 13/01/2022 09:24

@Franklin12

I knew someone would start on the, what about people with no money and no one in the whole wide world they could ask in an emergency to help...

It’s like the school plays threads. Even though the school might request no young babies due to the crying and distractions there will always be someone who claims they have NO ONE to watch their child, no partner, no family, no baby sitter, no sibling for say 30 minutes.

I mean not everyone does have somebody to watch a young baby. When mine were small I would have literally nobody to watch them. I know mumsnet suggests just asking fellow mums at the school gates or neighbours but in my experience nobody actually does that.

Of course I didn’t think it entitled me to just bring my baby where they weren’t allowed, I just had to miss things.

As for not being able to get to a&e you can ask 111 when you speak to them. If there’s genuinely no way you can get there I’m sure they’d rather you took your baby in an ambulance as things can get very dangerous with small children. Or perhaps they’d be able to suggest something else.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 13/01/2022 09:26

There was a thread not long ago on MN with a sick baby, non starting car, long ambulance wait and no available taxis.

BasketBlocks · 13/01/2022 09:29

Maybe people don’t have a choice? If don’t have a car and are injured or ill you’re hardly likely to want to take the bus.

PattyPan · 13/01/2022 09:30

@Kendodd

The people I worry about are those who need to get to A&E but have no money or way of getting any to pay for a cab. What do they do? You've got a sick child, it's the middle of the night so no public transport (couldn't afford it anyway) 111 tells you to go to A&E. What do they do? Do cab companies give credit?
Some of our local cab companies take card, so they could use credit card with those - that’s only for the pre booked ones rather than the black cab type though.
Just10moreminutesplease · 13/01/2022 09:35

I’ve been to A&E a couple of times. Never because I was bleeding or vomiting though.

You make a judgment call on how to get to hospital based on the reason for your visit, surely?

Mammyofasuperbaby · 13/01/2022 09:36

Taxis have taken me to and from a and e many times.
I've never been bleeding or vomiting when going just in excruciating pain or light headed from passing out.
I have however been high on painkillers many times and they were fine with it.
One time I stood up as my taxi arrived, just for blood to flood down my legs as I miscarried my baby in the car park of the hospital. I was hemorrhaging.The driver was amazing and when he returned to pick me up again I apologised if I leaked. He told me it wasn't an issue and it couldn't be helped. He didn't even charge me.