To think most people who phone for an ambulance could make their own way to hospital?

[fillmeup]

Either by getting family or friends to drive them there or getting a taxi. Obviously if you’re on the floor with a broken hip etc and can’t be moved or had a severe stroke an ambulance is required but most people I’ve heard on the news recently talking about how long they have waited, I’ve seriously wondered why they waited 20 hours (or thereabouts) and didn’t just get a lift.

@babsanderson it wasn't so much as they 'allowed it' but that in both cases there was a lot of blood, immediately obvious there was no other choice and they got taken straight through to be worked on as it was extremely serious (head injury and a serious open fracture) - I suspect if it had been less serious then I would have been asked to move on.

Our local ambulance service says the day after strikes is proving very very busy. The public seem to be listening on strike day and waiting for normal service to resume the next day.
So if it's waited a day it's not an emergency is it.

@Kendodd
**Then there are many who turn up at A and E and have trivial injuries- cuts that don't even require stitching, or twisted ankle 3 days ago and it's still sore, sore throats, lost tampons, their bad back medication isn't working or are just absolutely drunk or on drugs and aggressive

Isn't a lost tampon something that needs urgent (and easily with the right tool) removal?**

The thing with a lost tampon though, is that whilst yes it needs removing as they would be at risk of toxic shock, that person may have been walking round with it for days. Not life threatening at that point. As/if toxic shock sets in they may experience a whole host of symptoms such as confusion, feeling faint, weak pulse, reduced urine output....certainly needs prompt attention. If it gets to the point they go into proper distributive shock where their organs start to shut down and they go into peri-arrest/cardiac arrest there may not be an ambulance available because they're sat across town with someone who has just realised they've left a tampon in but is completely asymptomatic at present. One is a life-threatening emergency, the other is not.

A friend of mine had a situation with her 2 year old. Child had been ill, been to gp a couple of times and told it was ok. Later child went into a continuous fit, they jumped in the car and raced to hospital luckily only a few minutes away. Nowhere to park, car just abandoned, she ran into A&E screaming and a nurse dropped everything, grabbed child and rushed straight into resuscitation. Within seconds my friend says a team of about six were working on her child, before they even knew her name. Turned out is was meningitis. Kid is an adult now and in perfect health. My friend is convinced her child would be died if shed had even the slightest delay.

It would depend on what was wrong with me. I can't drive, but I could get the bus to the hospital if I could walk.

@AnotherVice Agreed a GP can remove a tampon;. I have known a GP refuse to do thus and send the woman to A and E.

So should they go to A&E if the doctors are closed with a lost tampon or wait a few days for GP? I would have though A&E. I have to confess, this was me about 30 years ago. I went to a GP office first and asked them about it. Just at reception, then the nurse came out to see me. She said they don't have the correct tool to remove it and to go to A&E. She also told me to go now, don't wait, even though I was suffering no illness from it.

I have done a day with paramedics and none of the many jobs required an ambulance. Many were just for people who were drunk, but had nothing wrong with them.

I have worked an A&E rotation and saw people call ambulances for the most rediculous things, including constipation.

Ive called because I dont know if I need hospital or not, is my chest pain a heart attack or 'just' my gallstones? An ECG can tell me that, but is it better I go and sit in a waiting room for x hours before having that ECG, or is it better I have it at home and if I don't need to go in, I can stay at home?

As for the parking thing, it is ridiculous but then the state of parking at many hospitals is now also, ridiculous.

Lets say you drive yourself to my local hospital, so you can't use the drop off, theres no one to move your car.

So you have to park in one of the proper carparks, the only one thats ever got spaces is a good 10 minute walk from A&E entrance, you may be well enough to drive yourself, but not well enough to walk for 10 minute down a steep hill and up the other side.

You definitely can't abandon your car in the drop off point as its sited where it will block ambulances once theres one in the drop off and one more dropping off, and it will be towed after 12 hours, possibly sooner if its blocking access to the ambulance entrance. If you're going to be waiting in A&E for anywhere near that long, then possibly admitted or sent home, it's a fairly serious consideration that your car wont be where you left it, or will have a boot on it and its going to cost you £££ to get it back!

So whilst I agree that parking shouldn't be why people call an ambulance, I can absolutely see why it is in some hospitals!

Minor injuries? Or go to A nd E in a car- certainly no need to call an ambulance.

Oh, and I didn't call an ambulance for the btw. I can't imagine anyone would. My post was in response to the pp complaining that people with stuck tampons shouldn't be in A&E.

Go in a taxi, bet a friend to drop you off, or a neighbour.

I don't think my friend with her two year old would have cared at all if her car was immediately taken away and put in a crusher. Although hers was an extreme situation.

This post does not make sense.

You are not advised to get yourself to hospital because if they are busy there is no guarantee you would be seen.

Its not just ambulances that are busy its the whole hospital. Strange thread.
There will also be lots of people who wouldnt be able to get a person into a car as well.

Get a friend, not bet a friend.

I had terrible stomach pains through the night when DP and I first met. He was away in Leeds.

They got worse and worse. I was in agony and crying with the pain.

My next door neighbour drove me to A and E- I cried every time she went over a speed bump or turned a corner. I made her just drop me off and said I'd ring her later. I could hardly walk in and was sick in reception. Turned out I had pancreatitis caused by a trapped gallstone. I was in 10 days and the pain was terrible. It never crossed my mind to call an ambulance. I would have got a taxi if she had not been there.

Same when I fell and hit my head on the edge of the bath- I thought my eye had exploded (it hadn't) I literally saw stars and flashing lights. Rang the emergency eye clinic in Newcastle for advice who said to go straight up as I might have a detached retina. I got a taxi. DH was at work. Took DS 1 who was about 1 with me. I had a fractured eye socket and trauma to the jelly in my eye and what became a stormer of a black eye. Would never have rang an ambulance.

I don't think my friend with her two year old would have cared at all if her car was immediately taken away and put in a crusher. Although hers was an extreme situation.

Same. When I was in the similar situation I genuinely would not have given 2 shits if my car was towed. The only thing that stopped me just dumping it and running in with my DC was the thought that ambulances wouldn't be able to get through. But he WAS still breathing, only struggling to. I'd have bloody dumped it if he wasn't.

I really hate these sorts of threads. I don't think I've ever known anyone who.would just call an ambulance for something they didn't honestly think was a life threatening emergency.
We really shouldn't all be made to feel like the NHS is too precious to use. It's meant to be there to help us when we need it but people are made to feel guilty for accessing that help. It's shit.

When A and E depts, the ambulance service, nurse unions, and A and E Drs are saying many people misuse the ambulance service, why do you think you know better?

the population is a hell of a lot bigger than the people you know. People definitely do misuse the ambulance service.

@Kendodd and @LuluBlakey1

What if you don't have a friend, I don't here (but this isn't me and is hypothetical, I have my DP and he drives), nor is there a neighbour I can ask, one has no car, the other wouldn't piss on me if I were on fire!

Taxi to hospital depending on which one, £40 to £120 and if you haven't got that available, they're not going to give it you on credit. Again, I do now, but theres been times in my life I didn't (not that there are any taxis available in my town I can get in, none will take my powerchair).

Yes, I can totally see in a situation with a desperately ill child, car being taken away would be the last thing you care about, but there are situations where you can be seriously ill and still care, and have your life royally stuffed up by losing your car/having to pay a huge fine to get it back. If you haven't lived right on the edge of poverty where there is no safety net and something like that tips you over the edge, thats nice for you but lots of people DO live that life.

So as I say, it shouldn't happen, but I can see why sometimes it does.

On the whole, people call ambulances when they don't need them, because theres something else wrong - they lack education on self care, they lack transport or sufficient funds, they are lonely, have health problems some other area of the NHS should be dealing with, because they're frightened, because they think it will get them seen faster, and yes, some of them because they're lazy entitled fuckers.

If you got off your high horse and read my posts you'd see I have already said that, more politely.

I'm sure some People do misuse the ambulance service but I don't believe that "most" do. And we get so much messaging EVERYWHERE telling people not to bother doctor / hospital / ambulance that I'm sure loads of people who do need these services feel they shouldn't use them. Like PP who've driven themselves to hospital with chest pains or called for a taxi when in dire emergency. People need to understand when it's appropriate, sure, but there's almost a culture of NHS being too precious to use. People have to just cope.
I'm pretty sure plenty of people have died because of the attitude we should all just tough it out. And the shortage of ambulances is not because of misuse. Its because of the shortage of care availability meaning elderly people aren't discharged when they're medically ready, so people can't be admitted to those beds, so are kept in ambulances for long periods, so the ambulances aren't available.

I am not- I am saying there should be services available to provide the support those people need rather than ambulances . They mainly need support, company and medication adjustments.

Really? You think most of the people on here think that vomiting or having a cut arm is an acceptable reason to phone an ambulance??? Cause that's not how I'd read the responses...

My Dad took a very bad turn yesterday and I was terrified after reading threads on here that he would die. But an ambulance arrived in 4 minutes and thank God it did because they said if it had been longer...well, I wouldn't be visiting him on a ward now.