I know IABU, blatantly using this for traffic. Emergency situation, no ambulance still, and need advice

[TheChinkOfaGlass]

Hi everyone

My Auntie had a fall this morning and has seriously hurt her hip. Luckily she was close enough to the bed to get herself up on it.

999 said it is not an emergency and to contact 111, she was in severe agony and is 78 years old. I rang 111 who after assessing her, decided she did indeed need an ambulance.

I had originally offered to take her to the hospital but she lives on the top floor of a maisonette, and is unable to sit up (so a car journey would be no good and I would be unable to carry her to the car anyway. I did get help but she declined due to the inability to even sit up).

Her husband is disabled so isn't much use (I mean this in the nicest possible way, he is trying his best) other than keeping an eye on her.

So we could be waiting hours for an ambulance but in the meantime she is soaked through on the bed due to urinating on herself. I am going there in the next 30 minutes.

Is it safe to roll her to change the sheets to make her more comfortable? I don't like the idea of her lying in a soaking bed while she waits. I am also scared of causing more pain/damage by moving her. We do not know what's wrong, she thinks it may he her hip. I just don't know what to do. I have never experienced this kind of thing.

Her partner has managed to change her underwear but when the bed is so wet, it wouldn't really make a difference.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/20/93-year-old-broken-hip-left-waiting-ambulance-floor-25-hours/

Just read this :(

Weren't they replying to the broken bones are a GP matter comment, not the OP?

If a private sector director were to be this negligent it could realistically be considered to be corporate manslaughter. Those in charge of NHS Trusts need a long hard think.

I know, right?

An 89 year old woman breaks her hip and lives in a flat. No idea why she can't saunter along to the walk in centre.

This is absolutely awful. I can't believe she has been left for so long.

Hoping and praying they are with you all soon.

That makes more sense. Lack of quotes didn’t help.

Next time some idiot wangs on abouthow pensioners downsize from their homes to live in a flat to free up housing im gonna point them towards this thread.

Of course it's an ambulance job. Possible broken hip in a very elderly lady, moving her could potentially cause life threatening bleeding, and lying so still for so long could cause other potential life threatening conditions.

Those are not correct! You either heard her wrong or she doesn't work for the ambulance service!

Cat 1 - severe bleeding, struggling to breathe or not breathing. Seizures also come into this catagory response time should be in minutes

Cat 2 - chest pain, strokes etc response time within 2 hrs

Cat 3 - trauma not life threatening bleeding. Suicide calls.

Cat 4 - non emergency transfers.

Or at least that's what it was when I worked for them!

I hope the lack of updates means the OP and her auntie haven made it to hospital.

I hope so too. Reading threads like this make me even more grateful that the ambulances got to us quickly when we needed them.

@RosesAndHellebores agree with all your saying.

And we need urgent change now not labour or anyone else.
We need experts from other countries

If a private sector director were to be this negligent it could realistically be considered to be corporate manslaughter.

Will you include all the private directors in the private social care sector who are not taking patients, thus causing people like OP's Aunty to be left at home in agony ? Or Government departments and Ministers ? I think there would be a good case for a class action case scenario for all those who have had loved one's die or those who have been left with life altering injury due to Ambulance delays caused by the Governments poor long term planning ?

Are you suggesting an 89 year old lady with a suspected broken hip, who is unable to move to get to the toilet should get up and go to the 'walk in'? You know the definition of 'walk in' is just that? Walk. In. The lady cannot move.

Category 3: Person having seizures, diabetic hypos, woman in late stage of labour
ETA 2-6 hours

can you imagine going into a quick Labour and unintentionally giving birth at home to be told 2-6 hours. The baby will likely be born by then. Our trust doesn’t send midwives to unplanned home births , it’s considered a paramedic job. 🤷‍♀️

or if you’re having a planned homebirth and there’s issues such as fetal distress or lack of progress or they realise it’s breech and the midwives ring for an ambulance and are told 2-6 hours. I wouldn’t be having a home birth in the current circumstances.

What would you like them to think about? They don’t have the ability to magic a functioning social care system or more nursing staff or more doctors or more hospital beds.

@CoffeeBoy the midwives keep pushing me to have a home birth despite me repeatedly telling them I’ve had to call an ambulance 3 times in 3 months (cat 2 each time) and all of them took >9hrs so I’m not up for that level of risk 🤷🏻‍♀️

Really hoping that the lack of update is because they're at the hospital.

The media always pick up and report on stories from Mumsnet. I hope they are reading this and can get some visibility to this table terrible situation

praying for you

🙏🏼

@BirmaBrite and how far back can we go because my local hospital has been awful under labour. In fact it was far worse then.

I did quote? Confused.

The Nightingale emergency hospitals have mainly been dismantled.

However the biggest issue with them was they didn't have enough medical staff to staff them. Its one thing drafting in veterinary and dental nurses during the pandemic it's another to do that in normal times.

They could be used as a temporary measure to free up acute hospital beds by taking those fit for discharge with no place to go. They wouldn't need the same number of qualified staff. Would need planning, organisation and will to make it happen.

But wouldn't they need, well, care staff? Of which there is also a shortage right now, or so I understand...