To buy a stretcher and keep it at home in case of emergency?

[Summersoon8]

I had the thought of doing this and then a few days later I read the story of an elderly man with a broken hip with no ambulances available (not even given a long wait time, just told none available at all) and his family took him to hospital strapped to a plank of wood in the back of a van.

AIBU to consider buying some sort of emergency/folding stretcher online and storing it at home in case we're ever in the same sort of situation?

Thank you. Someone gets it.

It's genuinely quite saddening that some find it all a laughing matter.

The problem with first aid courses (I've done loads over the years) is that they all assume a functioning ambulance service that will deliver more qualified help reasonably rapidly.

So, all the training is on keeping the person alive and at least risk of making things worse until that happens. The training for a fall without loss of consciousness is to keep the person still and warm where possible - you only move them if/when needed to protect their airway.

I've been on the end of first aiding a workplace fall with a broken bone where the ambulance response was around 3 hours.

We waited, because we knew the ambulance was coming, and it was the right thing to do. The paramedics were able to better stabilise the break, provide pain relief, assess for anything 'hidden' and support getting her off the stairs she'd fallen on without risking making it worse.

That was over a year ago. Today, I don't think we'd actually get an ambulance locally - we'd have to transport ourselves.

And how to best do that has never been covered in any course I've been on. I've half a feeling it will be on the next one, because more and more, people are going to be faced with making that decision.

A lady dislocated her hip near my house before the strikes, after hours in the freezing cold some builders working nearby laid her on their ladder and drive her in the back of their truck.

@MrsTerryPratchett thank you I'm having such a shit day but you've just tickled me with that response!

@MrsTerryPratchett this 🤣🤣🤣

You could kill someone by not moving them properly

i really appreciate the laughs I get on MN but this situation was not at all funny. When I had to take an unconscious stranger to an and e in a taxi by myself (in central London on a week day btw) I did not find in amusing. I was terrified by the responsibility, terrified I would cause her harm by moving her. I had done a first aid course but that only prepared you for what to do before the ambulance comes. What if the ambulance never comes?

I was totally unable to sleep for a week after this experience. I was scared about what had happened to the poor woman and distressed at what has happened to our country. I was literally traumatised. it’s not funny.

Yes of course you can kill somebody by not moving them properly. I understood that really clearly. But I was told both that the woman needed to be in hospital immediately and that there were no ambulances. In central London on a weekday afternoon not during a strike.

The times I have called an ambulance there's no way we could have done it at home regardless of the equipment. Paramedics administered morphine before attempting to move them.

This thread is unintentionally hilarious. The state of things are dire but I can't see that you buying a stretcher would help in any way.

Well using a plank of wood as an improvised stretcher certainly helped the family in the news story I mentioned.

I’ve managed to avoid buying air con, dehumidifier, gas stove and all the things related to crises that people seem to buy on here.

I think I’ll give the stretcher trend a miss.

You could spend your life doing this kind of thing fresher buying random stuff for every possible eventuality of life - where does it end?

Not to mention, as people have said, it’s as much about the person putting the injured party on to the stretcher correctly that would determine outcome for the patient. You don’t have that training.

You should also buy a roof rack for your car, pop the stretcher up on it and you'll have your own homemade ambulance ready to go.

Not to mention, as people have said, it’s as much about the person putting the injured party on to the stretcher correctly that would determine outcome for the patient. You don’t have that training.

No, but several healthcare workers in my family do.

@Summersoon8 no one doesn't get the situation or thinks the state of the NHS is a laughing matter. They just think your idea for buying a stretcher is stupid. Or at least I do. I can't speak for anyone else.

I think your intent is good OP, but skills are more important than stuff. I would prioritise doing some more First Aid training. You can then revisit buying equipment from a more informed perspective.

OP, I'm a doctor and I'm not trained in safely getting injured patients onto a stretcher. I wouldn't know where to start, but certainly in the majority of falls I'd be extremely concerned about the possibility of causing further damage if there was a subtle but serious spinal injury that wasn't immediately obvious. I'm not training in assessing for those on scene - and neither is the general public...

You might want to consider training as a paramedic too as you won't know how to move them!

One of our neighbours asked for and got a borrowed wheelchair off a local FB group in order to get her husband to A&E and neighbours put him in it then followed her to the hospital then put him in it again.

This is the sort of country we live in at the moment.

The people she borrowed it from recently bought it to transport someone to hospital after a long and fruitless wait for an ambulance.

A stretcher might have been easier in my neighbour's case because their back seats would fold flat for a stretcher and he would only need to be put on it once.

So what would you advise someone to do like the family in the OP who were told no ambulance was coming to an elderly man with a broken hip?

So what’s the plan when you get hypothetical injured person to A&E in a friends van on your stretcher?
Are you going to sit outside in the car and wait, potentially for hours, like the paramedics have to?
Transport them into a&e on your stretcher and safely(?) move them into a chair to wait for hours without support as the staff won’t be there to help move them?
keep them on your stretcher in A&E, stay with them whilst they are triaged, on your stretcher, then return to the waiting room with them still on it to potentially wait hours for them to be seen?

I hope your day improves @OutofControl3!

We've always had a comprehensive first-aid kit at home but recently have upgraded it to include SAM Splints and are seriously considering buying an emergency portable stretcher in view of the length of time it is now taking ambulances to arrive. We are not prone to catastrophising, my husband was a police officer for 30 years and now works in the NHS, I have first aid qualifications and yes, we have a vehicle suitable for moving an adult in a prone position. I just feel it is something I would rather be prepared for now, than find myself in a position regretting the fact that for £50 I am unable to help someone should the situation arise. www.amazon.co.uk/LTG-PRO%C2%AE-Portable-Stretcher-Emergency/dp/B07CKM32Z1/ref=asc_df_B07CKM32Z1/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=218118815255&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15643996208329977056&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046873&hvtargid=pla-682206190

What about putting money aside to pay for a private ambulance?