To think most people probably don't need an ambulance...

[Vwswimmer1]

Just that really. Also so many people that don't realise you still get triaged in an ambulance and can end up in the waiting room with everyone else...

Obviously not about people who can't mobilise or people or genuinely need one but the amount of stories I heard of people calling ambulances when they really don't need to.

You should probably work on your timing.

Why? Today paramedics are responding to Cat 1s and maybe it'll make people think whether they actually need an ambulance to take them to A&E.

Well I'd say thats for the call handler to decide really?

I don't see how my post is either against the paramedic strikes, which it clearly isn't... Or against people who actually need an ambulance.

It's not always though because a call handler makes a decision on the information given. I work in a hospital so I know lots of patients that are biba that don't need to have been.

It's not that simple, time wasters know exactly what to say to get an ambulance to attend and sadly most of the time call handlers recognise the caller but have to follow policy and dispatch a team.

Obviously there's nothing stopping people still saying the right things to get an ambulance today though.

I bet the OP is a GP, probably going to suggest that before you are entitled to an ambulance you have to book a telephone appointment first, if you are lucky enough to get one.

Yep! There are a lot who call ambulances and don't need them. Some people think they are yellow taxis merely to take them to hospital. It's been like this for years. One problem is many paramedics won't not take patient to hospital rather than advising them to make their own way or GP or pharmacist as they have very little professional back up from senior management should something go wrong based on their advice.

Working in another emergency centre control room, in very close contact with ambulance control rooms I can honestly say, ambulances are most definatly abused !

I so so agree. If you can walk you can get in a car/taxi. I was taken in (about 18 months ago) for anaphylactic shock. I offered to go in taxi and was told not to. My acquaintance (hyperchondriac...calls ambulance twice a year) always calls an ambulance (for a cough....I have no patience with her) as she'll get 'faster' treatment. I am ashamed of her.

I'm not a GP actually and I think that's pretty unfair on my colleagues that are. The NHS is in a terrible situation and it's awful people can't get appointments etc and I understand sometimes can't even afford taxis to hospital but I just don't think ambulances should be used in that way.

GP bashing again...

Any excuse.

The thread isnt even about a GP surgery.

When I've been advised to call an ambulance by 111, I've told them I'd be able to get a taxi easily if that's sufficient. Both times they said great, go ahead, call us from there if things deteriorate. So I think it's worth offering.

But many many people who need ambulances ( or immediate help from paramedics) are waiting too long now.

I'm shocked that there are call handlers who recognise usual callers! wtf!

There are situations where they want the paramedics with you asap though, and where a taxi driver might be reluctant to take you.

(Seizures are another example. If they need medical attention - many don't - a taxi driver's going to be reluctant to face the risk and potential mess)

Former 999 call handler here. Call handlers do not make the decision, the system does depends on the answers to the questions. And OP you are correct. People will never get an ambulance for a splinter or a stubbed toe or whatever nonsense you see spouted about. But people do over exaggerate their symptoms over the phone. And the call handler can only go with the info they are given. So people end up getting an ambulance for a chest infection because they have described it as a "crushing chest pain". Even when you re word the question, clarify what you mean by crushing pain etc they go yep just like that. These types of people do not need an emergency ambulance they just know what to say or are being melodramatic. People call when they have people there who could take them. People have asked me if I am going to pay for a taxi. The entitlement is unreal and people take no responsibility for themselves anymore.

This is going to turn out to be another of those UK class-based threads really, isn't it?

Riff raff call ambulances as taxis, the working classes ring for minicabs, lower middle class people drive themselves in, middle middle class people hobble in valiantly, upper middle class people have the estate steward take them on the back of a tractor, and the upper classes have their own personal doctors.

I think that's how the cartoon narrative goes.

I guess we'll see if there's a statistical death rate blip in the wind after today.

Well let's just say call volume is down a lot today, while the strike is on, even though most ambulance staff aren't striking and most that are striking are actually still attending quite a lot of calls. Which does indicate that some people can manage without an ambulance (I do accept there will be a few who do need one but don't call because the media has convinced them there are no ambulances).

Do all callers need a couple of people with three years' training and £100k's worth of kit in big yellow van that can take them to hospital in comfort? No, of course they don't. But there is nobody else who can swoop round at a moment's notice to pick up old people who live in enabled isolation and can't get themselves back on their feet, and we can't seem to come up with a phone triage system that can differentiate between a mild allergic reaction and anaphalyxis even if the person calling can, and we insist on medicalising people who are falling down drunk and... and... and. And as a result Mrs Jones, who has fallen and broken her hip and who absolutely does need an ambulance, has to wait.

Rant over.

Course there is! We used to get people who would call every day, or more than once a day
Then the hoax calls, often you would get a run of those from the same person

Just picked this off google, 414 calls

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/amp/nuisance-caller-cost-nhs-45-000-in-one-year-225838/

There was an elderly lady interviewed on the news today. She said that she'd called 999/an ambulance on a number of occasions when she'd fallen at home. They always came and got her back up again. She then said that because they were on strike, she'd had to phone her carers! Isn't that surely always the better choice?

I think that people have wildly different definitions of what constitutes an emergency. And I do accept that had she not had carers, she wouldn't have had a choice.

Yes - there are 6 taxi companies here and only one will take women in labour. It was covered in my NCT class.

111 sent an ambulance for my DS who was having breathing issues because it was the fastest way to get oxygen to him. Yes, he could have got in the car for 45 minutes to A&E but I'm pretty sure he'd have ended up admitted rather than treated in 15 minutes at home so the paramedic could move on.

I’ve sometimes wondered if 111 sending out ambulances Is part of the problem; I’ve had it on 3 occsssions when I’ve called 111 and they’ve sent them out when really they should have just said go to a&e.

The only bashing I've seen so far is of GPS actually.

I know of plenty of middle class people who ring for ambulances that don't need them, I don't think it is a class thing at all.

I think you have a point op. People seem to use them as 'the quickest route to hospital' , but sometimes their own car or a taxi would be fine.

OP I 100% agree. A lot of the time they are used as - broke my ankle so called an Ambulance??

Ambulances are meant for when people need urgent care on the way to hospital. Not as a means of going to hospital.