i saw a tv show about ambulances and people calling 999- there was a hoax call where an entire team of paramedics, doctors, police and other first were sent out expecting a really serious accident which turned out to be a hoax! There was also other calls for really stupid reasons- broken nails, sore throats, and people calling an ambulance trying to skip the queue at hospital. Some people were regulars and on first name terms and even knew words to say to be a priority!
I was shocked- I always knew that a small number of people called 999 for silly reasons, but I hadn’t appreciated just how frequent it is and how much time and resources are wasted from it. On the program they said that a really big % of their calls are for non emergencies.
I know that some people may have minor symptoms which turn out to be serious or may be unsure and scared so call for help, and other people are unable to get a GP appointment and get sicker to the point they need emergency help, and I’m not talking about them, but seriously there is no excuse for people calling an ambulance for a broken nail but yet people do it?
I was recently in a potentially serious equestrian accident and landed with my neck twisted and it hurt a lot. I lay on the ground in the rain for more than 3 hours for an ambulance to come out and several more hours to get into the hospital. The staff were amazing and so apologetic- it was not their fault at all and I kept telling them they did NOT need to apologise for anything, they were just so busy and I was correctly a lower priority as other people may have been life or death and I thankfully wasn’t. I was trying to be cheerful and happy but inside my head I was terrified- it was nearly 8 hours between me falling and a doctor checking my neck and confirming it was actually ok and for that 8 hours I kept thinking what if I’ve hurt my neck or what if I’ve done something serious. It was really, really scary especially without any family or friends to help me due to covid rules.
The paramedic was saying that they had several ridiculous jobs that day before me (obviously they didn’t go into details) and was obviously exasperated by the timewasters. Obviously my wait was not ideal, but if it was due to other people being more serious than me then that’s absolutely fine and I should have waited, but the idea that other people may have been calling with stupid stuff while I lay crying in the rain worried that I had damaged my neck really upsets and annoys me.
I know of someone who’s Nan waited over 12 hours in agony with a broken hip. And theres stories on the news of people with heart attacks and strokes not being able to get help in time. Other people will have similar stories.
how can people be so selfish?! Thankfully my accident was a one off and I won’t need an ambulance again (hopefully!) but I genuinely feel scared for people who may need medical help- asthma sufferers, people with conditions like epilepsy or anaphylaxis, older people who’ve fallen. A 12 hour wait for an old person with a broken hip is just insane and it’s scary how normalised and accepted it’s becoming.
of course there are other issues (funding, budget cuts etc) and none of them are the fault of healthcare workers or staff.
But how can people sleep at night knowing that they wasted an ambulances or a&es time and resources whilst other people were unwell? I can’t get my head around it at all.