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.

Aw OP your poor aunt 😢 this actually is heartbreaking. I can’t offer advice on what to do as no medical knowledge, I hope an ambulance or at least some help gets to her soon.

I'm hoping either an ambulance came or you somehow managed to get her to hospital. Its actually frightening right now,.
Just musing though I wonder if so many people are against any change to the NHS because they know the tories would just go complete USA style instead of going for a more European approach.

Yes. And it feels like the Tories are orchestrating these problems. I think the strikes serve the Tories in people from like change is needed now unfortunately. This gives them licence to do things that would normally be baulked at.

Still I understand why the strikes are happening, people feel forced to by the government because of under resourcing.

It's situations like these that are heartbreaking because these are the victims of this silly fight. I'm sorry to read what your aunt is going through OP and hope your get treatment very soon

Just checking in to see if the ambulance finally came. This is the most heartbreaking thread I've ever read on Mumsnet

The Labour government is in charge in Wales. What makes anyone think it will be better under Starmer?

this is the orchestrated dismantling of the NHS

@Name12343212 or the alternative view may be that the left leaning unions are orchestrating it to bring down the Tories. That is far more likely.

If 19.5% is given to the nurses, it has to be given to the railway workers, then the postal workers, following them the civil service and local government. Watch inflation wang up to 20%, followed by mortgage rates of 12%. In the background the bars, gyms nail technicians, artisan cafes and dog groomers will go bust. Nursing and teaching will start to look like very secure professional choices.

Meanwhile labour will pump money it doesn't have into the NHS to pretend it's fab. Government funded healthwatch will pay for its staff to visit CUBA or Australia or similarly far flung places to look at their health systems as they did in the late 90s.

And rats the size of cats will scamper over uncollected rubbish due to the rubbish collectors being out again.

Sadly much of the chaos will stem from the simple but stupid decision taken to shut down society on 23rd March 2020 to save the NHS. A decision based on poor science and wholly supported by the NHS. Labour if you recall didn't want lockdown to end despite the damage being done to children and the economy. It would have carried on printing money.

The NHS is not run by government, it's provided with government funds. The NHS from 2010 until very recently was run by Sir Simon Stephens. A gentleman who remained largely silent during Covid. A chum of BLiar from uni days who after being Blairs special adviser, was made Head of the NHS by David Cameron as a sop to the Liberals. The NHS is a bureaucratic nightmare run for those within it who invariably have left wing agendas.

It is against the above background that the op's aunt is being treated worse than a neglected dog. I hope against hope that she is now at least in the queue for A&E, dry and pain-free having been given morphine, on a drip to rehydrate.

I've been watching this thread. Im so sorry OP. I can't begin to imagine the stress you feel. Ive had to wait for an ambulance for a loved one and every second is hell.

For those derailing the thread to have a political debate. F*ck off!!! Go and open another thread anout that. Yes the governments are to blame but does that help the OP aunt now? She could literally die!

Absolutely this ☝️

It's criminal that the government are leaving people to suffer and die. In fact they're not just passively letting it happen, it's clear that they are purposely orchestrating a situation in which people with suffer and die. All so those greedy fucking bastards can get their mits on our NHS.

I've never been on a protest and wouldn't know how to go about starting one but we all need to be taking to the streets together. It's so important, we should all just down tools and match together for ourselves our loved ones and for eachother!

Anyone trying to claim things were bad under Labour too needs to look up literally any statistic about waiting times, funding, quality of care. The conservatives have done this because their ideology matters more than the ordinary person’s suffering.

I agree, this is not the thread for a political debate. The OP needs reassurance and support through this horrific time. I only hope that she has managed to get her Aunt to hospital.

Hope an ambulance turns up today and your aunt gets surgery soon.

The sad thing is, with the strikes, she is unlikely to get one today now unless her condition becomes life threatening ☹️

I am sorry it sounds a nightmare - have you considered asking the local fire brigade? They must have had first aid training in moving injured people safely and they would be strong enough to carry her. You shouldn’t have to but thankfully with it being cold I would be hoping they have more time on their hands now.

The local face book request for help is a good one possibly?

Yes the German version of the nhs is excellent, however the U.K. seems to be heading for the horrendous USA model.

Also 12 years of the Conservative Party reducing social care financing has part created this catastrophic fall out. Local Authorities pay so little towards care packages, resulting in minimum wage for care workers who do a responsible, demanding, skilled snd trained role. For the same skill level social care workers are paid 8k less than nhs workers. Yes 8k less than their equivalent nhs workers, unbelievable! No wonder there’s a recruitment and retention crisis in social care. No wonder service users health, care and safeguarding has been compromised.

After being on medical threads for a while (I’m a medic, I find them interesting) I think the UK public don’t want any changes because they don’t want any aspect of their medical care to cost anything at all.

For example, on GP access threads posters will complain they can’t get through to book an appt, there are no appointments and they are worried.

An Australian poster will say that they can often find it hard to book in with their preferred GP, but can usually get an appointment with another doctor and emergency appointments are available.

The response will be, “If I had to pay for a GP appt I would just never go”.

The Aussie MN will explain that there are GPs who don’t charge beyond what the government paid them per consultation (no cost to patient), that if you have a low income or chronic condition your payment is heavily subsidised, child health checks vaccinations are always no cost etc. However the UK MNers stop reading after they hear “private” and decide none of it is for them.

It’s a similar situation with medications. The Australian government subsidises the cost, but prescriptions have a cost. If you are low income, have a chronic condition the cost is reduced. Yet on here posters will say : “If I had to pay $5.80 (which is not very many pounds) each month my children and I would starve”.

It’s cultural. It’s also self-defeating because a US style system will be hugely more expensive

This is so sad and not a one off. My elderly Grandad waited 24 hours for an ambulance a few weeks ago. He had a fractured hip. Had to sleep on his living room floor because he couldn't move. This is happening all over the country right now. I really hope she is in hospital now.

@nolongersurprised I agree. It has to stop being free at the point of delivery. We need a European social insurance system.

I can't believe she is still waiting @TheChinkOfaGlass , what an absolute nightmare for you all.
There does need to be a discussion about how to deal with elderly falls, especially during the Winter months when already stretched services are stretched even further. These people need pain relief at an absolute minimum, and it wouldn't need to be IV, sub cut morphine would alleviate their pain which is something thousands of NHS workers in the community are already trained to do.
A private ambulance might be able to get her to the hospital but they would be stuck in the same queue as the NHS ambulances and the meter would be running so would soon be astronomical cost wise.
It is a shame that private hospitals can't be utilised for this particular set of circumstances , they usually have imaging facilities, so someones injury could be assessed, they could be monitored and pain relief given regularly until a bed was available for surgery. Clutching at straws but there needs to be a plan to prevent this sort of thing happening.

I do think you need to go public OP, if your Aunt would allow it, contact your MP, contact local press and media. Put a shout out on social media asking if anyone can help ?

I feel like this is what was planned all along.

Make the NHS so bad that people actually start asking for private healthcare 😔

Such a sad situation. I saw in the news a lady had been on the floor of a care home in Wales in a similar situation and thought of you.

The Welsh ambulance service is woefully inadequate and that's long before the strikes. My friends mum died after a stroke due to the wait to get to hospital. I hope the outcome for you is much more positive.

@TheChinkOfaGlass I'm really sorry I've only really read your updates not everybody elses, but is there any way you can arrange a private ambulance to get her to A&E? I've no idea how that would work, and obviously wouldn't be cheap, but it wasn't something I had thought of until someone suggested it to me....

I agree. Run it into the ground so people will buy until the idea that the only way to save it is by paying.

@ClangingBell

My Neighbours and I lived Blair's nightmare thanks.

I was terrified to have my baby because no hospital could guarantee we would be seen.

Headlines after headlines on women left alone in childbirth,turned away from hospitals.
Chronic midwife shortage.

Roses and hellebores yes I agree.

It's not a money issue ,it's a functional issue.

A labour government cannot solve the problems. No one government can. It must have crack team dedicated to it .

This thread is breaking my heart 😞
I was chatting to my husband about it, he was disgusted.
He is a firefighter and suggested you make your aunt as warm and comfortable as poss, access to food and water then for you all to leave the house, call the fire brigade to say your aunt is in there alone, has fallen and you can’t get in. They would come to a shout like this and “break in” While they don’t carry pain relief, they would have the equipment and skills to move her safely and also have more direct access to control to get a response medic there (though today’s strikes won’t help) with pain relief.
…..Also call your MP; it’s disgraceful that this old lady is being left like this 😞

There does need to be a discussion about how to deal with elderly falls - I absolutely agree Birma.
I've been reading this thread and trying to learn .My mother died a few years ago after a fall .And a very lengthy (4 hours )wait for an ambulance .
I learnt from that I should have made more frequent and explicit calls to ambulance and also that gas and air was a real help .

I'm interested in the technicians coming out to the OP's Aunt .I've never heard of this ,no idea how it's initiated or how widespread .Sounds like a good idea .

I can't stop thinking about this particular Aunt and niece ,I don't feel that today will bring relief .