On hold to ambulance

[AlizeeEasy]

Earlier this evening I had to call for an ambulance, I was shocked to be put on hold for a few minutes. I’ve never had to call them before so I don’t know if this is somewhat the norm, especially for a Saturday evening. Does this seem like it should be the case?

For context I had initially called for the police as I thought the matter was more appropriate for them and they answered immediately but told me to hang up and call back for the ambulance.

I have such a deep respect for the emergency services, so this isn’t a critique of them, just of the apparent lack of resources to cover busier periods.

I called 999 for the police earlier this year. Someone answered and then I was put on hold for 5 minutes. I wasn't impressed at all. Not their fault though. Chronic underfunding.

Sorry, that was NOT directed at anyone in the awful wait for an ambulance at the moment. Just frustrating you are in this situation.

There were literally no ambulances. They were all in use. But believe what you like. I have no reason to lie.

@ChristmasisRuined oh I 100% agree, but he can't do it anymore he says. He's moving to private where the pay is 20k more for easier jobs. The spoke to his trust before handing in his notice about career progression and salary and they told him it wouldn't ever happen.

It's a sadly broken system!

@Dinosaurpoopy I take my hat off to people like your husband doing this job but I completely understand why staff are leaving and can't do it anymore. The pressures they are under must be unbearable. They're doing their best to help people but it's an impossible situation for them. Its only from what I read or watch on the tv about it but it seems many are suffering with mental health issues of their own because of it.

@Minniem2020 that's partly why he's leaving, he went to a poor 90 something year old who had waited for 26 hours for an ambulance after a fall! Put in a complaint for her in front of the family just as a minor apology and to hold up his hands it was unacceptable. Only to be told off for that by management that he suggested the system didn't work!

Mental health as well is huge amongst everyone we know in the trust, they have so much resentment for how they were treated in covid and now the situation is dire.

part of its got to be the GP problem. getting an appt is a nightmare so people leave things then get in a panic when it gets a bit worse and end up in A&E/calling an ambulance.

Obviously on top of that there’s a shortage in ambulances and A&E funding that compounds the problem.

I’d say vote but I’m so worried that Labour won’t fix it either. why isn’t there someone in politics screaming about this? But, I imagine the only way to fix it is higher taxes and look how much everyone hated the NI rise…

Of course I do. I didn’t say there are private ambulances. I said there are already private ambulance FIRMS. My brother works for one.

Private ambulances are for that purpose, yes.

there are also private ambulance firms which are exactly as the name suggests.

as if it’s his responsibility to fix it 🙄

No wonder mental health causes so many problems. Trying to get someone help for mental illness crisis is a circle of hell. Throw in addiction problems on top (which let’s face it is common in people who have mental illness) and it’s actually almost impossible to get any agency to take responsibility. Each one pushes you to the next and you go round in a circle whilst the ambulance service and police get called multiple times. Multiple short hospital admissions because they can’t/won’t section or offer longer stays because there are no beds. The cycle continues and the pressure on police an ambulance services gets worse. If it were up to the NHS my db would be dead by now. We had to fight and fight for months for the nhs to take responsibility and with the inpatient treatment he needed he is a completely well fully functioning member of society, doing a really important professional job and thriving. I shudder to think how many people don’t get the treatment they deserve and just end up dead. It’s absolutely awful.

Have you seen what they have to deal with? I'm amazed there's anyone left. Why do you expect him to stay? Or anyone else?

Re private ambulances, I had to enquire about these once for dad in 2018 - he didn't fall but couldn't move (cancer related weakness) and died about five weeks after that hospital admission. We were told it would be several hours. Private ambulance was £700 but they exist for people who aren't dead!

so a burly neighbour did accompany him in in a taxi and carried him in because he said "oh it'll take ages to find a wheelchair". We were lucky he happened to be around on a Tuesday afternoon.

I think there are a lot of posters here who genuinely have no idea what things are like.

re the bureaucracy, I would actually prefer to sign a disclaimer saying I won't sue.
but this would mean making the bureaucrats redundant so no one will do it.

this is potentially outing but I'm past caring. I was offered a contract role at the Dept of Health, got headhunted for it. Left after two days. It was a literally a job to create paperwork for nurses, that had no benefit for patients.

I was in the middle of a meeting where they said "we really need your insights into how to get nurses onboard" when I walked out (politely).

my work was overseen by a man on £80k to create more paperwork on targets and so on. He had been hired from another part of the country so was covered for London hotel bills too. This was under Labour so things were in better shape then but that's not an excuse to waste money.

giving money to the NHS only helps if it's given for the right things. Before someone spoiling for a fight says Dept of Health is not NHS, I don't do public sector work because the same crap applies across the board.

I think the public sector has been about jobs for the boys for ages.
who was that novelist who did his entire book while on a council job? Working in the actual office, but no one knew or cared that he was doing that.

Oh shit
just saw another thread about A&E that has given me the rage.

Private ambulance services exist and are now used by the NHS. If you phone 999 (in the area I'm in) you might get an nhs ambulance or one of several private companies. They are all staffed by paramedics/techs/ecas and as a service user you shouldn't see a difference. If in doubt look at the side of an ambulance for the company name!

These private crews pay staff a lot more and often have better equipment but also cost the nhs more. They are told to provide x number of ambulances a day for x price.

St John is the most common example of this but no loads of companies have realised you can cash in on the situation.

He couldn't if he tried 😂 he's 8 years in and 28 years old and is now one of the most experienced and longest serving staff in the area- says a lot doesn't it..

Just to add to this, on Thursday I walked into my 9 year old DD having a tonic colonic seizure. I had heard almost gargling/choking sounds so checked on her she was having a seizure and foaming at the mouth. I called 999, was on hold for about 4 minutes until ambulance service answered from West Midlands, I’m in south east. She continues in this state for a further 10 minutes, and then went into spasms for 20 minutes. She remained unconscious. It took the ambulance over an hour to arrive, they had come from 60 miles away. I begged the call operator to take her by car, bur had to stay with us. We was then blue lighted to resuss unit where she gained conscious but non responding. We have been in since having treatment and tests for meningitis, she has never had a seizure before. It has been terrifying, on the way to hospital, the ambulance crew spoke about where they had come from and how long we had waited, i could see the desperation in them. So 😞

One of my tasks this week is to try to track down our ambulance crew to send them something, I don't suppose you know how I do that without causing botheration for any staff?

Many thanks to your DH for his service.

@EmmaAgain22 oh thats really sweet! If you look up your local ambulance service and "compliments" they will have a phone number/address you can use. They'll ask for details about the job such as time and what happened or the "cad" number if you have any paperwork and track down the staff for you.

@Dinosaurpoopy what trust is that? That’s so young. Ours has the opposite problem. Only 2/3 recently graduated students have come through to most stations in the trust and the rest are all over 50 and plan to retire soon. It won’t even be enough to cover a shift. Not the same for ECAs but the worry is what will happen when that is all they’re left with. Retention isn’t the issue, recruitment is.
There were 2 younger ones (mid 30s) who mainly did FRVs but they were both promoted and are now in management so they rarely get used now as there aren’t enough to staff them.

109k is not fuck all. It would pay for 2.5 paramedics for a year, maybe 4 ambulance techs.

There is undoubtedly underfunding but the NHS wastes huge amount of money too.

There are too many middle managers, and that money could be spent better on people who can actually save lives.

My source, DP paramedic for 20 years currently considering resigning.

Am I taking up their time filling in those forms though?

they weren't from the nearest one.

what I might do is just take a big box down to the local one, give the names and if they can pass it on, great, if not, biccies and chocs for another team can't be bad thing. I don't mind if they don't know who it's from, just want them to have something.

I rang 101 the other week when someone was walking down the central reservation of a busy motorway at 5am.

The call was 4-5 minutes after witnessing it because I couldn't call until safe to pull over.

And then I had recorded messages about urgency and remaining if urgent and using the report online etc.

The whole time I kept thinking - well it is urgent hence me calling the number. But 4 minutes to answer an urgent call doesn't seem like you think this is an urgent need call line!

Turns out I wasn't the only call they'd had about it so thankfully someone was already dispatched and we didn't need to waste time me giving my details either.

Please, please please stop voting for the Tories.

What are you waiting for, for people to be literally dying in the streets before you'll vote these fuckers out? Oh hang on, that's already happening as this thread attests.

The Tories are running the NHS down so they can privatise it, they've already been selling of off piecemeal for years.

When Labour last got in, one of the first things they did was make a commitment to bring down waiting times for hospital appointments, and they did it. It's been reversed since the Tories got in.

Please, please vote these fuckers out, they are destroying the fabric of our country.

Ambulances are for emergencies only - if we continue to use them as a taxi service for those who can get to a hospital by car or an actually taxi or for drunks on a night out this what happens.
they are triaged - they’re sent to people having heart attacks, who can’t breathe, who are unconscious.

There are lots of problems causing a perfect storm.

Underfunding being a primary one - not just of the Ambulance service, but of Social Care, Mental Health Service, Public Health etc.

People using Ambulances like a taxi service to A&E ..

i think people in front line care are worried about being discipline or prosecuted, and are overly cautious, and send people off to A&E in an ambulance, when it’s not needed.

Lack of access to GP services - lots of cases could be averted by better primary care provided by the NHS.

We need high quality, affordable, group living / extra care housing for older people. No wonder people have accidents & incidents, if you are elderly, on your own, with a care popping in for 20 minutes a day.

Blaming “middle management & E&D advisors” is Daily Mail rubbish. It’s important health services are accessible, or you are storing up more problems further down the line - we should take into account Sex, Disability, Race etc.

and lastly … people seem to have lost the ability to look after minor illnesses accidents themselves - learn a bit of first aid.