Been waiting 12hrs for an ambulance

[Riggsisadino]

I know it's all in the news but ambulance wait times are ridiculous and I know it's mainly due to people in a&e not being moved onto a ward and ambulances not being able to move into a&e.
I am currently with someone with a dislocated hip and shoulder and we gave been waiting 12hrs. The pain is getting unbearable and I am struggling to reassure and calm and know what to do. They are saying that they have people in same catogory waiting longer to.
I feel bad for the person I'm with but can't help to think people who aren't sat inside or are on there own. I don't know what the answer is but something neeeds to change

It’s crazy though because I swear since I was a teenager we have been warned about the time coming when there are not enough people (facilities) to look after an ageing population. And I hadn’t considered that was at the bottom of a failing NHS (there’s obviously other issues and a lot more since covid) but it makes sense. DHs uncle lived out his last 6 months in a hospital bed waiting for a nursing home place.

Hip and shoulder? OMG, how did those happen together? & How do you know those are the problems?

In 2018, I started to drive DH to hospital with dislocated shoulder (about 2 hours after he'd dislocated it at a leisure centre) when we saw the ambulance arriving. He made me turn around so he could get in ambulance, he was so desperate for pain relief: he had 3 forms of relief before he got to hospital, hour drive away). I can't imagine how someone would manage 12 hours with that level of pain. DH would be passing out intermittantly by then. I would have resorted to whiskey to give some relief by then.

They said on radio last week, I think, 60% of people in hospital beds could be discharged but are waiting for social care packages. Imagine what NHS could do if 60% of its beds cleared overnight.

That's not true. If its about any one thing its about the repeated failure of government to sort out social care.

Get the poor sod into a car or taxi, FFS! Momentary pain is better than languishing for hours and hours.

I know it's not popular but this is why the NI raise should have gone ahead. I am a surgical nurse and spend my time caring for medically ready patients, who wait weeks to get placement/carers. Whilst I quite enjoy caring for these patients, I do worry about the patients who should be in those beds.

The Tories has achieved there goal, I don't believe we can save the NHS. The way it is I can honestly see it becoming line dentistry and charge by stealth. Have you seen the new NHS programme, that allows you to work out how much your care costs.

Hope the ambulance has arrived ? That poor person must be in agony.

Domiciliary care ( the majority of which is private ) is in crisis , not enough staff, so very difficult to provide appropriate or safe care packages, and too few beds, especially the short term rehab/step down type.
This has a huge knock on effect on the NHS, if they cannot discharge someone, either to their own home or a more suitable setting, then that bed ( of which there are only about 100,000 ) can't be used. Which is why you end up with ambulances spending an entire shift stuck outside hospitals, waiting to be able to hand over their patients. This means that there are fewer ambulances available to attend other calls.

How do you propose the OP move someone with a suspected dislocated hip into a car?

If it ends up the way of dentistry, that's fine with me. My dentist is responsive, polite and excellent. As are his staff. My vet and optician are the same. I would like all my medical care delivered accordingly.

How did it happen?

How the feck do you think op will be able to manage that?

Yes it's horrific. Took DH in at 2pm one day last week for chest pain - he has a history of viral pericardial infections but you can't differentiate between that and a heart attack without tests.

3 hours and me chatting twice passed before anyone so much at ordered an ECG or blood tests. It's pericarditis again, but if someone is alone and having a heart attack with no one to speak up for then, they'll be irreparably damaged.

The consultant he did see was brilliant, but 3hrs before any diagnostic testing is a disgrace.

Chasing, not chatting FFS.

@RosesAndHellebores what about people who can't afford to pay for those things.
There's a shortage of dentists.
I'm alright Jack eh?

Agree with @Eskarina1 lots of people bed blocking, waiting for social care packages. This happened to my husbands grandma, been in hospital for weeks, can't be sent home as she needs a care package in place, she waited weeks to be transferred to mental health hospital.
My mum has cancer. She had to ring for an ambulance a few weeks ago. She couldnt drive as she's just had an operation. It was the middle of the night so no taxis. She was told to get a taxi anyway from nearest city. She then spent 2 days sitting in a chair at A&E receiving treatment because there werent any beds.
Prior to that hospital stay she was in for 10 days after an infection post op. She was ready to be discharged but waiting for her meds to be given to her. For whatever reason it took 2 days to be given the medication prescribed so she basically blocked a bed space due to bad organisation in the hospital.
A friend recently took her 6 month old baby to A&E with bronchiolitis, had to wait 6 hours whilst baby received oxygen in the pram as no bed space.
Another friends husband had a heart attack recently. She just drove him to A&E because she didn't want to wait 10 hours for an ambulance. What's worse is that 4 days before hee husband had tests on his heart. GP missed the results and when her husband got to A&E the consultant told him, your GP isn't doing his job properly, you should have been referred to a cardiologist immediately.
It's a disgrace. Absolutely terrifying.

You go pay for it then. Not everyone has that luxury.. ffs.

I have used 111 a few times for my daughter and each time the advice is to go to hospital, that’s easy for me as I drive but others don’t or have money for a taxi so they have to send an Ambulance for them.

People suggesting OP should try to move someone with a dislocated hip and shoulder have no idea wtf they are talking about. Trying to manhandle a full grown adult with those injuries without equipment and training is a recipe for disaster. Just the shoulder might be ok if the injured person could walk under there own steam. Add a dislocated hip? Not a fucking chance.

It's terrible to be in pain, scared and waiting for that long. People are dying waiting for emergency treatment. We're in the hands of the gods as to whether we'd be treated in time. Even People who are injured out in the street are not getting treatment and have ended up with hypothermia. It is not a new situation but is definitely getting worse. I most certainly do not blame the medical professionals. It is sadly often the elderly who suffer the most. I've seen it first hand.

There was a programme on ambulance waiting times on R4 on Sunday evening. Someone drove her DH to the hospital as no ambulance came. I didn't catch what the problem was but he had a seizure in the car on the way to hospital. He broke his back (life changing injury) which was apparently as a direct result of having a seizure whilst wearing a seatbelt and wouldn't have happened if he had been in an ambulance. So driving someone to A and E isn't always a good idea.

It's dire isn't it. I was recently sent to A&E by my GP who advised I needed to be seen within 1 hour. I was in A&E for 25 hours. And this was having been incorrectly sent home the day before after test results were not reviewed. Subsequently spent 8 days hospitalised so I wasn't there for a minor reason.

AnonyMouseToday · Today 05:59
Can you get your friend into a taxi?“

please don’t even think about it, terrible advice.

Sorry to hear this, had a similar experience recently when my partner very badly broke his ankle. We were just told there are no ambulances...not even given a waiting time. One did come after a few hours, which I consider very lucky. Hope your wait it over soon. Call again, not much else you can do.

These stories are so awful. You don't realise how bad it is till you're in that position.

And that falls on social care which is even more overstretched.

@SuspiciousBanana

It’s run by the wrong people in the wrong jobs and poor communication.

Exactly

The tories are 100% to blame. Wrong people in the wrong jobs is exactly the problem.