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.

Have just finished shift at an ambulance service trust, some poor buggers have been waiting for over 7 hours for C2 (supposedly 18min response) ambulance. These are people who are fighting for breath, are actively having heart attacks and strokes. As harsh as it sounds, a potential fractured hip will not be prioritised over these people. Some of my colleagues have been sitting crying at their desks. The situation appears to be the same nationally. I know in Kent the other day there were 27hr waits for ambulances, in the Staffordshire are a a few weeks ago there were THREE DAY waits. People are dying and there is nothing we can do, it's heartbreaking, I didn't sign up for this.

This is heartbreaking but unsurprising - I had a similar situation recently - I called 999 for a vulnerable person who was having a seizure and was put in the queue to get through to an ambulance. This took 20 minutes before I could even speak to someone to say whether it was a life threatening emergency. Then the ambulance was over 2 hours waiting time.

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.

This is why GP's should be on call. The ambulance can't get there so a GP should be able to and to administer morphine for the pain.

I don't think it would be unreasonable @TheChinkOfaGlass to call 999 back to let them know that your aunt has deteriorated. Question mark urinary and faecal incontinence.

Your poor, poor aunt.

When this is over you must wrote to your MP.

@LittleAtlas

When I was in the ward, the 86 year old opposite me, with a hip replacement, had been on her floor 3 days! Luckily she had a gardener once a week and when she didn't answer the door he went around the house looking in the windows & saw her lying in the four and got help.

she was waiting for a hip replacement, but it had been postponed a couple of times because of bloody covid.

she said she probably would have died there if it wasn't for the gardener because she doesn't have regular contact with any one person, but was very happy with her life. Very upbeat, especially all considered!!

she was a lovely, lovely lady & very interesting. I often think of her & wish I'd got her phone number.

I live alone and my accident has definitely made me realise how vulnerable we are. I've changed a lot of things, but need to do more.

I'm only 53 FFS

Sending sympathy. This kind of thing has been going on for over a year but is only now really getting public attention. It is not safe to get ill or have an accident in this country any more, and I think we all know who is to blame for that - it is not the nurses or the ambulance drivers.

My 84-year-old mother fell and gashed her arm more than a year ago, when was already very frail and unable to get up by herself. Council care team came out but refused to lift her because she was injured. She was lying in a pool of her own urine for 12 hours before the ambulance arrived. After another fall earlier this year she spent 24 hours waiting for an ambulance, though at least this time because she wasn't bleeding carers managed to get her on to a bed and changed incontinence pads; the ambulance then spent 12 hours waiting outside A&E, and she spent another 12 hours in A&E waiting for a bed. And things have only got worse since then.

Luckily - and yes, I do feel it is lucky for her - my mother has since died, so I don't have to be scared of how long she would have to wait for an ambulance if she fell or got ill this winter.

Dont blame the GP's for the failings of the government.

If an emergency response vehicle can't get there in a timely manner,.how do you expect an overrun service to get there any quicker?

They are actually doing job they are contracted for, not twiddling their fingers waiting to pick up service failures.

A woman of 78, or any age actually, having a wee & stating she needs a poo, by the afternoon after a fall in the morning is not 'incontinent' it's needing normal bodily functions.

I think there's a faster response if someone is on their own.

An elderly neighbour slipped on ice a few days ago in the garden and knocked herself out on concrete path. She came round to find she couldn't move her legs and was freezing cold, called 999 and ambulance arrived within 20 minutes.
If she had relative or friend with her she'd have had to wait a lot longer.

@Rowthe and this lady is one of their patients. Emergency out of.hours was part of their role until Tony Blair changed it.

The ambulance can't there. In the meantime someone shoukd be providing some pain relief for this poor woman. If they have a damp they would.

We are in this mess as much because the public had nodded in gratitude for shit services for too long.

Vive la revolution!

Juggling "I live alone and my accident has definitely made me realise how vulnerable we are. I've changed a lot of things, but need to do more."

I live alone as well so be interested to hear what you've changed.

the contract to GPs for overtime was very odd.

Exactly - I can't recall the detail but were GPs really going to leave? I remembered it just looked like they were cutting overtime because...no one knew why, in fact.

This is why I left the ambulance service. Its inhumane, particularly in mid Wales.

OP if your aunt has any change that suggests she is getting worse, such as starting to talk nonsense /seeming vacant / not as responsive as usual, call back 999 immediately.

The ambulance service in Wales is on 'black' which is Ambo code for 'fucked'. I would suggest anyone else, where possible, makes their own way to a and e. (Spinal /hip injuries aside)

By the same logic, ask the local pharmacist to come and give them morphine, or the district nurse, or maybe call a palliative care nurse, or maybe ring one of the doctors sitting in the hospital doing a clinic, not like they are doing anything else is it?

I'm appalled they didn't class that as an emergency. Your poor aunt. Makes you wonder just what they DO class as an emergency these days.

Anyway OP I hope the ambulance service get there soon.

This is why are striking because they cant deal with providing crap care any more.

The government needs to hang its head in shame.

Please don't use puppy pads for humans, they have a chemical which can burn the skin. I've seen the results when I worked in A&E, towels are better.
I hope you're not waiting too much longer.

A choking child, heart attack, unconscious person not responding, maybe raspy breathing.

Anyone unconscious, not responding, maybe a sudden collapse with no obvious heart beat.

The government needs to hang its head in shame.
Not a chance. They're proud of their record.
Assholes.

This is a stupid thread. She clearly needs to be going to hospital.

@Rowthe the GP practice has a contract to ensure care is provided to sick.people, even if sub-contracted. They receive an annual levy per patient. Some patients use it and more, the majority not at all.

As far as I am aware, no such contract exists with pharmacies/pharmacists or District Nurses, neither of whom hold a licence to give morphine to a patient which in any event would have to be prescribed first by a physician.

@TheChinkOfaGlass I think it would be worth calling your aunt's GP practice to see if there is any ooh cover available. My GP now has a contract across the CCG to provide care up to 8pm. Someone may be able to assist.

No point writing to MPs about health issues in Wales.

It’s a devolved responsibility- your MS is the person to contact.

OP, I hope your Aunt get the attention that she needs soon. Asking 111 for advice about painkillers, food and fluids is a very good idea.

You can get absorbent sheets (similar to puppy pads) intended for bedwetters, in the aisle with nappies. I think they should be safe? But you probably don't have time to go searching the aisles of big supermarkets, so going with towels might be easier.

www.huggies.co.uk/drynites/products/bed-mats

GPs have more than enough on their plates sadly.
What we need is more of them. More GPs, more paramedics, more beds etc. successive governments have failed spectacularly to prepare for our aging population and increased pressures on services.

OP I would swing past a pharmacy and get some incontinence pads. If you can see if she can gently roll to get her wet things off. Or cut them off and then put pads around her to keep her dry. Keep her warm. I would also give her paracetamol to try and help with the pain. Make sure the paramedics know what she has taken when they arrive.

Have you read the thread?

What pain relief has she taken? Are you near any care home who might have someone to assist her -shouldnt have to but an assessment will be reassuring.

Know any nurses or friends of nurses.