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.

Op I completely agree! Having worked for the ambulance service i can say you are 100% right!

Its not a taxi to hospital ffs

An ambulance was sent to me by 111. I didn’t call an ambulance. I told 111 I could get to hospital by myself on public transport. But they said my symptoms demanded they sent an ambulance.

I watch quite a lot of ambulance programmes on tv, and honestly I've seen so many where someone has fallen or collapsed at home, but they are awake and ok.

The ambulance arrives and asks the person if they can move. They can. They then ask them to get up off the floor and go and sit on the bed or chair. They do this no problem.

I'm sure some people think if they faint at home but then come round, they need to stay in exactly the same position they were when they fainted, and wait for an ambulance.

Complete waste of time and makes person look like a prize tit.

I've never heard of this in the UK.

Calling BS

Obviously not but what about people who drive themselves there and genuinely don't have the money for the rip off parking fees. I went to minor injuries in August and was there for less than an hour and it cost £4. They sent me to A&E and I was there for 4 hours and it was another £7. £11 to park for less than 5 hours is extortionate!

The thing is, it's not whether it's difficult to get people to A&E by car, it's whether it's possible and safe to do so. Every ambulance that's used for this purpose could also be needed in an emergency (they can't just shunt them into the street if a life threatening emergency comes in).

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

That's still not a reason to call an ambulance. Are you serious?

Maybe you should put some money aside incase you need to park at hospital again.

@Outfor150

We aren't really talking about people that have called 111 first though. It's people who call 999 for an ambulance when they are capable of getting themselves to hospital.

Once I've called an ambulance for my dd. Struggling to breathe with croup, lips blue etc, I don't drive. They arrived within five minutes and the paramedic actually said where he trained (different area of the country) paramedics could give steroids for croup but he couldn't in this nhs trust.
So he took us in instead where a nurse from triage administered steroids and within minutes dd was breathing properly and fast asleep. We then left a&e without seeing a doctor.
If the paramedics could of given us them we would not of needed the transfer to hospital and the a+e visit. I don't understand how different trusts do things so differently.

@Simplelobsterhat

A paramedic isn't a doctor. The patient will still have the problem they had before they called the ambulance.

The patient will still be waiting with everyone else in the waiting room, unless resus is needed.

I remember years ago, when I was a student, I got my first uti in the middle of the night and was in agony, unable to wee at all, called NHS direct (as it was back then) and the call handler said I needed to go to hospital, asked how I would get there and I said I didn't know as I didn't have enough money for a taxi, didn't drive and none of my housemates drove either. The call handler said I could get an ambulance - literally as a taxi in that situation!
(I didn't get one, I called a friend who offered to come with me and pay half the taxi so we had enough money to get there and back)

Are you honestly implying that it's a good reason to call an ambulance because it costs too much in the car park? Those car park fees all go into the pot. People don't want to pay higher taxes. They don't want to pay at point of use. But the very same people want access to high quality services and for staff to be paid more. It is a small way of recouping some of the costs for providing the services. If you're getting a full A&E service for the cost of £11 it's a bargain!

YANBU. I know because I've been told that some people insist on an ambulance because they don't drive and don't want to pay for a tax. We're talking about 5 miles away from the hospital here. Of course anyone who is seriously ill should be blue lighted to hospital but these people were not.

Unfortunately that seems to be a common mind-set

I don't think that poster is saying SHE would do it. She's saying it's a reason people do. And she's probably right.

You can try to change the behaviour of thousands of people or you can make it easier/cheaper to park at hospitals. The second one is easier but means less profit for the people running the car park (clue: probs not the NHS).

Just slagging people off for being stupid probably has a small effect on societal behaviour since being publicly shamed is horrible, bit out doesn't have a country-wide effect that would actually start to tackle the problem. It's action that will do that. But action costs money and our government are swindlers - and it hates us.

YANBU, I used to run antenatal classes and one of the questions I asked was “have you planned how you’re getting to hospital?” Every week without fail, someone would say “we’re going to call an ambulance”. I would obviously tell them no you aren’t unless your haemorrhaging / birth is imminent, but I’ve seen so many unnecessary ambulance transfers over the years working in maternity. One woman called an ambulance because she had toothache. They then expect the ambulance to take them home again when they’re assessed and discharged, people treat ambulances like taxis, anyone who thinks they only get called out in emergencies are sadly very wrong.

@gilmorehill when they call what number do they call from? is there a possibility of people ignoring thinking it's spam?

And then are people who use ambulances as a convenient lift so they can get to other parts of the city/town more easily and for free!

No, I know they are not doctors, but they are highly trained healthcare professionals and in many cases there are some things they can do to help the patient. There are examples on this thread. As everyone is saying, they are not just taxi drivers, so it's not just about the time it would take to see a doctor.

I've had to be blue lit twice. One ruptured ectopic and the other first massive bleed with twin pregnancy

That being said subsequent bleeds with my twins - which were worse - I called an Uber....this was in the worst of covid when I could see ambulances queuing for hours so I felt bad about taking up valuable resources

I remember when Ds was about 3 taking him to hospital with severe breathing difficulties. (We are close enough that even then it was easier to sit in the back with him while my mum drove as we could be there is 10 minutes)

we where taken straight through on arrival so he could be treated. A mum complained that her son had come in by ambulance so should be seen first - he had hurt his ankle.

a few hours later I nipped out to grab a bag from my mum for the overnight stay. The same woman was complaining at reception tjat because they had come in in an ambulance they should be provided one home!

sadly people do abuse the system and use it like a taxi system.

Problem is when you phone 999 you’re asked what service you need, police, fire or ambulance…. But it’s NOT a life to the hospital or ambulance most people are wanting, and I think it’s wrong to frame it that way. It’s emergency medical assistance. If a paramedic/first responder in a car could be sent with necessary equipment to administer emergency treatment this would prevent a lot of death and/or worsening of conditions. Then once the immediate emergency danger was over either an ambulance could be requested by the first responder or they can make their own way there via taxi or friends and family. I honestly think it’s more first responder/paramedics needed not more ambulances ie transportation.

Category one call outs are supposed to arrive in an average of 7 minutes and category 2 ambulances in an average of 18 minutes. That's because those time scales have been deemed to have the clinically best outcomes.

Our hospital trust frequently has queues of 20 minutes + just to get into the grounds. That's without the whole journey there and the potential for traffic jams blah blah. Without a blue light, you can't skip the queues. So it's not uncommon for people to need to allow up to an hour to get to our local hospital.

Then there's nowhere to put the car to take the patients in without going off to park. If everyone did a dump and run, then nobody would be getting into the hospital grounds. It would all entirely jam up.

Next there is an actual queue of people standing outside of a&e waiting to go in. That's potentially well over an an hour without treatment for things like chest pain, breathing difficulties having to make your way across a car park and queue.

Unfortunately now of course who knows when an ambulance would turn up. I think it would be a case of calling and asking for an estimation, but without crystal ball people don't know whether to wait or run.

The issueis that an ambulance is a mobile treatment centre as well as a transport device, it has some rescue drugs, oxygen, IV fluids to maintain blood volumes etc, so treatment can start on the way (and pain relief).

In some areas they carry nebulisers so asthma can be treated without the patient needing to go to hospital (which is quicker for everyone and frees up the ambulance quicker).

I've been in an ambulance twice. Once with back/neck pain after an RTA (got rear ended on the motorway - funnily enough my car wasn't drivable at that point...). Was fine but definitely needed properly checked!

Other time was for DS who had breathing difficulties with Chicken Pox, plus temperature not responding to calpol, (ibuprofen is contraindicated in chicken pox). Ambulance largely came to triage (it was midnight on New Year's Day) and they generally don't like parents driving kids with breathing difficulties because of the whole distraction causing accidents thing... Turned out they also didn't like the lung sounds so we got taken in and went straight from ambulance to cubicle to limit the spread of chickenpox among sick patients. We could have driven in but were asked not to to limit the infection risk. Would have been easier to drive as getting home would have been a lot simpler.

The midwives at the antenatal stuff said to call an ambulance if you were at the funny noises stage of labour as they'd also rather not deal with an RTA as well...

I'm horrified by the idea of people with chest pains or severe pain driving themselves - they could easily kill other people by being distracted (or passing out at the wheel).

Definitely need to throw money at social care in the first instance, plus mental health services in general - that should improve the rest of the service massively if prompt discharges of medically fit patients can happen and MH crises can be averted.