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.

That sounds like a great system!

I do believe if there were minimal.fees put on A and E visits, it would put off alot of the time wasters. Same for ambulance trips. Even £25 call out if you weren't actually in need of one would stop people using them as a taxi service.

The whole system needs a business brain to take over and get rid of ridiculous sytems, long term (stress) sick admin staff, unnecessary training (trans and equality or the benefit of ypur colleagurs, not patients) costing hundreds of thousands per hospital trust.and reduce the HUGE number of managers and admin agency staff.
Also, why on earth they cant purchase their own equipment without having to putit out to tender is beyond me.
The money that is wasted to unscrupulous companies winning these contracts is appaling.

Mental health needs a team of their own around the country, as they do in parts of London. Ambulances shouldn't be called to suicides/suicide attempts. Its not what its for.

Surely people who have had a stroke need treatment in the golden hour too?

So much about it boils my blood.

You need to call the ambulance again because it is likely she will deteriorate and die from this if not seen soon, surely?

Goodness, @SkyView, that Amazon analogy is sobering - not least because it would actually work, and would be quicker than calling an ambulance.

How unprofessional and arseholish for the hospital to hang up on her. I don’t care how hard done by the hospital staff feel, they should not be in the job if they can’t understand how upset someone in a lot of pain and unable to move for days feels. There are some utter gobshites in these roles and everyone is at their mercy.

wishing you and your aunt the strength and support to get through this xxx

Unbelievable.

@TheChinkOfaGlass someone local to me got to a&e with the help of neighbours and first responders when they were badly injured today, after they posted on their local Facebook group for help. Do reach out locally - there will be off duty medically trainee personal who may be able to help.

this is unbelievable. I hope you get some help soon.

Dont really want to hijack OP's thread so I will be brief. GPs do not have any appts, many surgeries are no longer answering the phone. Parents are panicking about strep A, there are many unwell elderly people, suicide attempts and overdoses. Plus you have people with mental illness who phone us because they are unable to/dont want to access out of hours MH services, which, TBH are not that good. People with MH problems are massively neglected. Then you have your usual drunks and timewasters.

I wasn't talking about the times - I know they are way off. I was correcting what categories different things fell into!

@nolongersurprised I work in the NHS and spent 3 years working in US emergency care. I've been saying for a while we need to look at Germany and Australia and completely overhaul the NHS into a similar format. The US system is horrific and I wouldn't wish it on anyone but as a country we seem blinded with that being the only option when other countries use a different model very well and that's what is needed. The NHS is completely broken, it doesn't help that social care is too but simply there's not enough resources for the numbers of sick patients we are seeing. Whilst I support strike action, with how broken the ambulance service is, there's no way of reducing the service to strike without causing patient harm.

We have a community falls service that would go out, assess, lift her up and get her comfortable but there's still a long wait for an ambulance. Falls at home aren't covered in the derogations, but we have been told long lies will eventually be moved. Honestly, id move her, but I am ex ambulance staff and know how to do it moderately safely, but on the balance of risk you're still better moving her with how long it's been. Good luck, I'm so sorry

Yes, I copied and pasted the message my friend sent to our girls WhatsApp group as she’s so dismayed at the situation

God this is horrendous, is paying privately for an ambulance a possibility? Local councillors, MPs media etc.

Not exactly. This lady’s aunt is category 4 yet can’t move, she lives in a top floor maisonette so difficult to move. What could a GP do for her if she’s broken a hip and can’t leave her home?

There is another elderly lady in the paper aged 93 and ambulance took 25.5 hours for a broken hip

RSPCA is a very wealthy charity, and most pets have extremely expensive private health insurance. But yes, “ Causing unnecessary suffering “ to any animal is illegal.

Animals also have option of home euthanasia when at end of life, too.
Animals are better off than humans in this regard.

This is awful, I hope your Aunt is now at hospital

It's bloody terrible, I say that as a HCP. Could you call the GP and get them to come out and give your poor aunt some morphine at least while they are waiting ? This doesn't sound like the UK it sounds like a failed state how did we get here.

I urge every person here to remember this thread next time we have a general election. This government have run the nhs into the fucking ground and it is absolutely appalling.

Here, here. What a disgrace they are.

In Lagos Nigeria the waiting room is packed out with people in various states of disrepair, distress and bleeding. Some on chairs, some on the floor. The nurse who is also the receptionist takes the patients name, writes it on a slip of paper and drops it in a big black bin.

Another nurse appears and dips her hand in to the bin and takes out a name. Calls out the name. This lucky person will see a doctor. Its amazing, like winning on the lottery. Apparently some people sat for days with basic care, or went home and returned the next day.

This was 1975. I suspect its improved.

12 years ago I was told I was quite mad for imagining that the Tories had been in talks with private health insurance companies. I tried to draw attention to this along with the fact that many areas of NHS provision were being carved up and contracted out to the likes of Virgin to make profit. Some of this was in the mainstream media too. But everyone argued that no government would be brave enough to dismantle the NHS.

It is not bravery that is pushing the NHS towards the standards of a (third world) underdeveloped nation, or bravery that Sunak et al are quiet like mice. They always were very very quietly going about dismantling the NHS and undermining it through cuts and seemingly poor oversight. This is playing out as it should, and when they have undermined both it's foundations in fact and in fantasy (ie our love for it) they will of course already have the solution.
How's that for a conspiracy?

People are dying, people can not get basic life saving health care, some are not eating, some can not afford heat, the elderly have no dignity, children are in school hungry, looked after children are put up in hotels and many even go missing, more and more teens are attempting suicide, something like 75% admit to self harm, more and more people on the brink, more rage, services cut, even private companies non responsive to complaint. Workfare was slave labour, EHCPs like gold dust and no guarantee of support, DCs education in free fall and teachers leaving. Thousands of suicides because Duncan Smith thought people with disabilities were piss takers, and bedroom tax pushed people to take their lives. People with terminal illness added to work programmes .........

30 years of wage stagnation. 12 years of austerity.

So when can we get our boots on?

Im so sorry for your Aunt. But me saying sorry can't fix her hip. I wish I could do more and I'm sure every decent person here wishes they could help. I really hope she is seen soon.

I think it may actually be at a point where moving her is at least of equal risk as not moving her. Someone mentioned bleeding. Not sure about broken hips in regards to this. However if it's a fracture especially pelvic fracture there is a risk of blood clots.

@biscuiteer I urge every person here to remember this thread next time we have a general election. This government have run the nhs into the fucking ground and it is absolutely appalling.

That's a rather simplistic statement.

It seems Tony Blairs legacy for the NHS has been forgotten.

Despite fears of being branded a “tax and spend” administration, (reminiscent of traditional Labour rule), Blair accepted the necessity for more cash. But, after the money started to materialise, attention quickly moved onto results. With no dramatic service improvements to show for the boost in funding, the government sought a performance-enhancing system to replicate the competitive incentives of the Conservatives' internal market. The result was a strict regime of command to ahere to targets.

So the bad practices that the government would later deride as the root cause of the NHS's financial woes were born.

We have an increasing aging population that can't be blamed on the Tories - our population currently has more than three million people aged over 80 years old. By 2030, this figure is projected to almost double, and by 2050 reach eight million.
Today one-in-six of the population is aged 65 and over, and by 2050 it will be one-in-four.

I don't believe that throwing more money at the NHS is an answer.

My brother is a retired doctor and just sent me this 2019 film to watch "The Great NHS Heist". I thought I knew what was going on but this is about the history and the planned privatisation from 1977, how it was, and is, being done. Holy shit - most people have no idea what's happening. Excellent film. It has been loaded up here to watch free -

@Francisca459 In 1977 UK had a Labour government (elected 1974) which lasted until 1979.

(I can't see the film unfortunately)

There's nothing new under the sun, it seems

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-504809/1977-Labours-year-trouble-strife-revealed-secret-papers.html

This thread just heightens my fears of anyone needing an ambulance at the minute.
Really hope she gets the care she needs soon. it’s heartbreaking thinking of someone in pain like that