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?

HI OP.
Yes, I have - in fact before Christmas I clubbed together with people in my village and we bought two - one hard one and one soft one. I have been in three awful situations since June where it would have been great. Before Christmas my DH and I took a neighbour to hospital making a makeshift stretcher with an old tent flysheet because there were no ambulances available. It was as I thought the man would die. He was saved by the doctors.

OP could always buy an ambulance and store it in her garage just in case. 😁

Always helps if people RTFT before posting silly infantile posts like this..

and another..

I have RTFT but nothing has convinced me that this is something you should do.

😂😂

Strap them to an ironing board. Improvise.

And there’s me panicking because there only one loo roll left 🤣

I read all of your posts and most of the others from other posters.
Still wouldn't want a family member to manhandle me onto a stretcher, so I can wait in A&E for hours instead of at home.
There is a crisis within the NHS and the government are ignoring it, buying a stretcher, however, just doesn't strike me as a sensible idea.

YABU.
You need training on how to assess someone and their injuries before moving them, and then knowing the best and safest way to move them. Also moving them in a way that is safe for you too.
You would be far better off taking a First Aid course and learning how to keep someone comfortable and safe whilst waiting for emergency services.

How about a camping bed?

Careful, you will be cutting yourself on that sharp tongue.
Still, you could always hop on the stretcher with the other patient if you do 👍
Wee waaw.

I've decided to log off this thread now and won't see any more posts, due to a lot of people who think it is hilarious or "silly/stupid" for others to think about/prepare for what they would do in a desperate situation of a loved one in severe pain or even dying.

Hopefully they will never be in the sort of situations that we are increasingly hearing about on a daily basis. If they ever are, I very much doubt they'll be laughing about it then.

@Francisca459 I'm glad your nearbour was ok in the end.

Cheerio.

A flounce!

Based on what PP have said, would it be useful to put on more first aid training in the community that people can go to to learn some basic information?

I have only been on 1 first aid training and that was about 30 years ago

You shouldn’t move someone that’s fallen really. You’d be better off taking first aid courses. I also think you need to put things in perspective. Are people in your family likely to fall? Do you have suitable transport? Would you go as far to get your own de-fib? Your own operating theatre?? The least of your worries are surely needing a stretcher? I’m not sure why that’s your focus.

Several people have come on to this thread to give real life examples of needing to move people because there are NO ambulances Not just a long wait for one, but none. In my case, as I wrote earlier, I was told by the ambulance caller to bring an unconscious woman who I did not know to hospital by myself because there were NO ambulances none.

Of course it is not a good idea to attempt to move someone if you don’t have medical training. That goes without saying. Also, in a civilised society first aid training is good enough. You make someone comfortable, monitor them and wait for an ambulance to arrive. But we are not living in a normal situation An ambulance may never arrive.

People are on here sharing traumatic experiences that any one of us might have to suffer given the crisis state of the NHS. And people are laughing!

I am in no way at all over anxious. I never catastrophise. But I have been in a situation twice in the last three years where there was no ambulance. If you think this is hilarious what would you actually do?!

I think people are laughing at the notion of owning your own stretcher not at anything else, like how does that even work?
I have unfortunately had to ring for an ambulance a few times over the last year and on none of those ocassions would having my own stretcher have helped at all.

@Sparklingbrook It's not just the getting them there, but what does she think is going to happen once she gets there?
That she's going to bypass a queue of ambulance's?
By the time the patient gets seen, they will need an undertaker, not a doctor.

They will be taking up a lot of space in the waiting room whist waiting to be triaged, I would imagine.

And on discharge do you have to get someone to go find your stretcher so you can take it back home? Or do you just buy a new one for next time?

Arriving in an ambulance doesn't mean you will be seen more quickly than someone who arrives by car - they triage everyone regardless of how you get there.

Waiting in an ambulance at A&E is horrible but there's HCPs looking after you, unlike arriving in the back of a transit on your own stretcher.

You'd need a couple of strong friends/relatives to carry you into Reception, then what?

You don't say.