Misuse of ambulances

[Lampshade7]

I work for one of the ambulance trusts. We have many, many people who phone up several times a day wanting ambulances. They are sent out but never need them. Obviously this is a vast waste of resources and time. If I had my way I would not send an ambulance no matter what the reason. One of my colleagues was horrified by this and said that they should be sent just in case. I think stuff them, you can cry wolf once too often. IABU?

The government are currently doing a project on reforming some Communication offences and its recommended that "Making hoax calls to emergency services" is included.

Obviously, subject to safeguards but its been seen as an issue.

(its always been something one can be charged with, under malicious communication laws, but now its being made an explicit crime)

www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater-manchester/news/news/2021/december/man-charged-with-malicious-communications-offence-after-hoax-calls-to-emergency-services/

YABU
That one time you refuse to send one, they might have actually needed it.
There are usually other reasons going on that someone might keep calling emergency services. They need support, not ignoring.

YABU

My Nan used to call an ambulance during the night. It was the start of dementia. Would you really refuse an ambulance to an 80 odd year old?

Of course you can't just not send an ambulance for any reason! That is one of the basics of healthcare - everyone is treated the same.

One of the reasons for these calls is going to be mental health issues. While care for those of us with SMI is so underfunded it will have a knock on effect on ambulances etc. Why not focus your energy on that rather than not helping people.

Oh feck off do you work for the ambulance service!

Please.

I think you need to rethink your career choice tbh.

Whats the point in working for the ambulance sercice if you dont think anyone should have an ambulance, it seems a bit of a waste of your obvious talents.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I agree that nobody should be outright blacklisted from ever receiving an ambulance, purely on the basis of previous/regular abuse of the service - but is there no triage done over the phone?

Supposing somebody rang 999 and said that their telly had just broken, so they needed an ambulance (can't afford a taxi) to take them to hospital, so they could watch the one in the waiting room there, surely you wouldn't send an ambulance? Or is it that people who call will just lie about (non-existent) sudden chest pains or something?

It is infuriating, but it can't be much fun for the frequent flyers themselves, who must surely be suffering quite badly with their mental health. I've heard of people calling on average five times every day - regardless of the waste of everybody's time and resources, their whole waking lives must be consumed with calling and travelling back and forth in ambulances, waiting to be seen by HCPs in hospitals and then planning their next emergency call. It can't be any kind of life. I'm surprised that they're considered capable of living independently, to be honest.

I do wonder why there's only a blanket policy with ambulances being sent to everybody requesting them, when that most certainly isn't the case with the police. People often struggle getting the police to come out for quite serious crimes; but going on the same principle as the ambulances, it sounds like they'd send a police car out every time a 999 caller reported somebody stealing their mug at work or kicking at their fence.

How come 'wasting police time' is a chargeable offence, but 'wasting ambulance resources and paramedic time' doesn't seem to exist?

Certainly here, yes there is triage. An ambulance won't be sent for a broken finger nail etc. But I think often with someone with serious mental illness there is a concern so it needs to be checked out. Unfortunately, there is noone more appropriate to refer to.

Genuine question. Is an ambulance always sent out. Or can you refer patient to a more relevant service.

Eg. If I called and said I have a small cut on my hand, not bleeding profusely and has stopped now I have a plaster on. Can you say that does not require an ambo, or do you have to send one ?

Many of these serial abusers know which key phrases are guaranteed to get attention.

Loss of consciousness, chest pains, palpitations, difficulty breathing - all guaranteed to bring out a paramedic.

There are very few people calling 999/112 for a bust telly. It's always a pretext.

I take messages for district nurses - OOHs they take the palliative cases.

There are a fair few who call 'in agony' with loose, blocked and leaking catheters, when they simply want someone to clean them up after fouling themselves and don't want to pay for social carers.

Or they're lonely and need to talk to someone.

Or they've left it to the last minute to ask why no one has come to change their dressings.

It's always the same repeat offenders.

We can't refuse them, even though they are wasting time and resources.

They do not always send one in my experience, I had a pulmonary embolism and they didn’t send! Said I sounded very calm and to go to the GP. I took a taxi. I complained about that but they weren’t bothered, said they don’t sweats get it right 🤷🏻‍♀️

*don’t always get it right

Refusing an ambulance would be one of the kinder things I’d do to him.

Or, to put it another way, he would DEFINITELY need an ambulance after you'd 'had a word'....

Sorry if that came across flippantly - but as you say, it isn't just wasting money from some bottomless pot: every frivolous call-out for an ambulance takes it out of service for somebody who actually desperately needs it. There isn't an unlimited army of vehicles and paramedics in a massive field somewhere.

Maybe they need to start some TV campaigns showing it like it is, with real needs represented, and the consequences of abuse. I think a phrase like 'Hoax calls costs lives' should be hard-hitting enough, but it probably just goes over the heads of those who most need to hear it. If they could see a reconstruction of an actual life that was put at risk because of an abusive call-out, maybe they might stop to think.... but that may well just be wishful thinking....

Are you serious?

Surely there's a training course or something you can go on if you are having difficulty with your response to this situation. We're constantly being told that the only problem with the NHS is funding but the staff themselves are all great. Don't go fucking that stored goodwill up with damn fool threads like this.

Obviously if someone is calling an ambulance multiple times a day or week, then they are ill. If not physically, mentally.

There's an urgent need for drastically improved mental health care and social services. This has been an issue going back well before the pandemic.

@Lampshade7

I work for one of the ambulance trusts. We have many, many people who phone up several times a day wanting ambulances. They are sent out but never need them. Obviously this is a vast waste of resources and time. If I had my way I would not send an ambulance no matter what the reason. One of my colleagues was horrified by this and said that they should be sent just in case. I think stuff them, you can cry wolf once too often. IABU?

Really? Every time I've needed an ambulance, either me, or the person calling for me have had to answer so many questions to make sure it's needed. I have brittle asthma btw so definitely not just demanding one, and every time I've been kept in hospital, and often taken straight to resus.

@WheelieBinPrincess

They do not always send one in my experience, I had a pulmonary embolism and they didn’t send! Said I sounded very calm and to go to the GP. I took a taxi. I complained about that but they weren’t bothered, said they don’t sweats get it right 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry that happened to you.

An old colleague experienced similar for a different equally serious condition a few years ago. 111, and later 999, dismissed it as a panic attack.

The woman who regularly feigned unconsciousness after fighting with her boyfriend got a precautionary cannula in the largest available size.

That could be a situation of domestic abuse. The victim doesn't explicitly ask for help out of fear or misplaced sense of shame. Calling for medical attention is their way of reaching out. It's not uncommon.

Repeat nuisance callers get their numbers blocked.
That is a thing that happens.

Not being taken to hospital doesn't mean not requiring urgent medical attention.

Why must every unreasonable behaviour always be attributed to “mental health issues”? Obviously some people have MH issues, but are we not allowed to acknowledge that there are some thoughtless twats out there who really do waste the time of the emergency services?

People don’t want to believe it happens because they themselves wouldn’t do it. But it really does. And people know they can get away with it because others will justify it on the basis they “obviously are suffering with MH issues.”

MH is becoming too much of a get-out for twattish and unacceptable behaviour these days, and that means those with genuine MH issues are far less likely to be taken seriously.

[quote BattenbergdowntheHatches]@Balcmange my good friend was a paramedic and the number of nuisance patients was the main reason why she isn’t any more. The ridiculousness and entitlement of the public drained her of compassion and she left after burnout. Before that, she had her own way of dealing with “frequent flyers”.

The woman who regularly feigned unconsciousness after fighting with her boyfriend got a precautionary cannula in the largest available size.

The drunks got their T-shirts necks pulled out just as they threw up so it went all over them. She used to tie their shoelaces together after they passed out.

She left after a week in which she retrieved her former teacher’s severed head from a field after a bike crash, had to wait a almost a whole shift for a morbidly obese man to be lifted out of his flat window using specialist equipment, and was then delayed getting to a gang-related stabbing in which a young teenage boy died while she was looking after him.

These people are human - and I couldn’t do the job. HCP’s aren’t saints but there is a horrible minority of the public who are basically illiterate, thoughtless twats.[/quote]
Well, I am glad your friend is no longer a paramedic if she was dealing with frequent flyers in such a way. Disgusting behaviour.