There is no ambulance service anymore

Elderly man with broken back lived 10 mins drive on a clear road from the hospital.

If you were unconscious after a 60mph crash would you be happy with a two hour wait? Would you not think you were a bit more urgent than that?

No its not.

My friend had a heart attack, his partner was told to take him direct to AE as the estimated wait for an ambulance was 4 hours.

He went straight in for an operation and the surgeon thought he was 10 mins away from death.

Long waits for Ambulances is well documented.

It takes a min 6 weeks to get a 4 x per day home care package, waits in AE can be 10 plus hours (Even Coffey waited 9 hours, ex minister Jonny Mercer 23 hours)

BUT things will now change, the rich will get even richer and that will mean even less money for the nhs and with super high 10yr Govt borrowing rates & high inflation there will be no improvements ever.

My partner lay in the road with a broken hip for 5 hours waiting for an ambulance .

Yabu

Why not take your child to hospital yourself, unless life threatening why would you even accept an ambulance. It's people like you who make those who genuinely need them wait

I think the problem is that going back a few years the advice was to call an ambulance for breathing difficulties because if they get worse you can't do cpr whilst driving. Although ideally that would still be the case, OP is highlighting that for some people the balance might have tipped and it is quicker to bundle into a car and drive.

I think it definitely depends where in the country you are.
I'm in Cornwall where there have been some shocking stories of waits and no shows. Friends in London report far fewer problems. Anecdotal I know, but still..

In some cases there is a fast response still, depending on where you are and when the emergency is.

But there are enough stories in the press and from people most of us know, that show there is a huge problem in a lot of trusts. So in some areas there is no safe or effective ambulance service. Round here there was an elderly man with a broken hip and ribs left lying on the ground outside in the rain for 9 hours. Definitely classed as an emergency. People are dying because the ambulance can't get to them in time.

There are 11 trusts providing ambulance services in the UK. As a starting point for this conversation it’s worth pointing out that means 11 differing levels of service.

I get your point.

A friend of mine ran over a pedestrian that ran out in front of him, and the police asked him to drive the guy to hospital himself as it would be quicker than waiting for an ambulance.

A couple of weeks ago, an acquaintance was having heart problems (enough to spend 10 days in hospital and has to have his heart restarted) and the operator told his wife to go and get the nearest defibrillator and bring it back (she had to drive to get it) because there was a very good chance that an ambulance would not get there in time. How scary is that?!

I have to agree, my elderly neighbour slipped on her path and had clearly broken her ankle. She said she couldn’t move or get up on her own. They said 8hrs+ for an ambulance. It would have been 2am by that time. My DH called his brother and together they lifted her up and drove her to A&E. Even in this time she was freezing cold and shaking from head to toe with shock.
She then waited 48 hrs in a trolley in a corridor, as they couldn’t schedule an operation. Turned out to be a very bad break. The system is badly broken. I know how hard the staff are working though.

It is bad these days but many people call an ambulance when they'd be better off sticking the person in the car or a taxi and driving them there. You see it a lot on MN where you think why an ambulance. Unless the person cannot be moved or is in immediate danger e.g. stopped breathing, loss of consciousness etc, just taken them yourself. Stomach and chest pains I'd take someone in asap rather than waiting for an ambulance.

Not helped by the fact when somebody posts on mumsnet about someone being drunk - someone immediately jumps in with 'call an ambulance'.

It’s a fact. I work in the NHS. Category 2 ambulances are often taking hours.

If you need an ambulance try to take your loved one to hospital yourself instead. This could save their life.

I’m sorry that your daughter was let down, I really am. But this advice could kill.

We’ve had an uptick recently of critically unwell patients presenting to hospitals within the region that don’t have an A&E department or the facilities to care for them properly, which delays their access to proper medical treatment as they still have to wait for an ambulance transfer. There’s also the fact that if you’re driving your friend or relative, you’re not going to be in a position to notice that they’ve deteriorated/gone into cardiac arrest, and that could have really severe consequences.

If they are unwell enough to need the expertise, medication, and equipment that ambulance staff have, then bundling them into the car and driving them to hospital yourself could do far more harm than good.

@Devilishpyjamas what's your point? Obviously not helpful in every scenario but a neighbour had a stroke recently & their partner got them to the hospital asap as the ambulances were at capacity.

I went to hospital a while ago with a severe illness. I was too ill to be able to sit in the waiting room on a little plastic chair for several hours. So they told me to GO HOME and wait in the comfort of my own home for an ambulance, because they had nowhere to put me where I could be made comfortable and lie down.

So it is a very bad idea to take yourself to hospital if you’re seriously ill or injured. They will have nowhere for you to wait that accommodates the seriousness of your condition, and they will send you home. If you’re not physically able to sit on a plastic chair for hours on end, you have to stay at home and call an ambulance.

YANBU

I looked after a five year old girl yesterday who was in hospital (High Dependency Unit) after an anaphylactic reaction to a nut she’d been given.

The mum had phoned 999 and was told the ambulance would be over an hour.

Seeing as her daughter couldn’t breathe the mum put her in the car and made the 15 minute drive to the nearest A&E. The mum told me she was absolutely terrified as she was watching and listening to her daughter struggling to breathe in the passenger seat whilst rushing to the hospital.

There is an ambulance service but it is seriously over stretched and sick people are paying the price for it.

If that mother didn’t have access to a car then it’s pretty likely her daughter would have died.

Couple of years ago the doctor at the gp clinic called an ambulance for me. Cat 1 emergency as very real risk of heart attack or stroke. Was told it was in its way and would be 5-10 minutes. Ambulances stuck at a and e and after almost an hour it still hadn't arrived. Dh had arrived by then and was asking the doctor if he could just drive me there instead. Gp clinic was reluctant to let me go as they had medical equipment if anything bad happened. But it was getting ridiculous. I was sat taking up a doctors clinic, just me and dh, with an emergency button to press if anything occurred,

In the end they got me and dh to sign a form to say that we would take responsibility for our decision to make our own way there. Doctor printed off all their information and wrote a letter for a and e reception. They also called through.

Dh got me there in about 15 minutes if so. He couldn't come in with me due to covid restrictions but I was then triaged almost immediately and admitted to the resus bays.

Fortunately all was well, but even for Cat 1 emergencies, the system isn't coping. I got the impression much of the issue was being caused by the waiting for a bed in A&E.

Why not take your child to hospital yourself, unless life threatening why would you even accept an ambulance. It's people like you who make those who genuinely need them wait

honestly go & get a life..

That was a random mid week mid morning so not at a particularly busy point such as the weekend or Friday night. It was mid covid however.

Well it's not going to be very helpful if they go into cardiac arrest in their living room when waiting for an ambulance either? I'd take my chances personally. Plus if the person is well enough leave the ambulance for someone who needs it. A child with tummy and chest pains doesn't need an ambulance. Maybe 111 should calm down with the dramatic advice .

You can’t bundle into a car and be driven if you have a broken back. When my 16 year old had a seizure we needed an ambulance because he was upstairs & too heavy to move & unconscious. When the paramedics arrived they also struggled and we had to basically wait for him to come round enough to be able to support him down the stairs (he was a small, slim 16 year old, but unconscious people are very hard to move).

I would never, and have never called an ambulance unless needed - but now I know that in this area, depending on the pressures at the time, it might not come. Even people with strokes are sometimes having to wait here because they are classed as the second highest priority level, not the highest.

Calls have massively increased. What people are calling for has changed, not everyone ‘needs’ an ambulance. 111dont always help, they have a short period of time to assess and sometimes request ambulances for people who can make their own way to hospital. There is no where for some patients to go home to, the NHS can be used as a prop up for social care issues. Meaning no one can get into A&E because generally the most unwell are waiting for beds but can’t go up because not enough are being discharged. So the ambulances have to wait until there’s space. A&E has become a ward for the most part. It’s not great. That said, based on the OP if the patient is breathing and not bleeding profusely, I wouldn’t be waiting on an ambulance. I wouldn’t expect the ambulance unless there is something in addition to what she has posted. Pain doesn’t always mean an emergency….it’s a personal one because you hate seeing anyone in pain but it doesn’t automatically life or death and that’s what the ambulance service prioritises.