To wonder if this doesn't upset you, nothing will

[ThirdWorld]

I've name changed for this as it's very identifying.

I live in a small village and and as a treat after a long hard day at work popped into my local pub for dinner.

Lying on the floor was an elderly woman. She was covered with a warm blanket. She had tripped and fallen at lunchtime, and obviously badly hurt herself.

An ambulance was called at 12:30, she is still lying there in the middle of the pub waiting for an ambulance.

I've obviously read about how broken our NHS is and even read the thread on here where a poster had written about her aunt who had fallen and was waiting for about 12 hours for an ambulance. But reading about it and actually seeing it for real is even more heartbreaking.

This poor old woman has been lying on a cold wooden floor for 7 hours! The owners and bar staff have been amazing and are looking after her. Well as much as they can.

I can't tell you how useless I feel. There is nothing anyone can do. The woman has obviously been refusing food or fluid in fear of wetting herself.

I know from reading the thread I mentioned previously that there is nothing anyone can do but wait.

As we left they were getting her a pad to relieve herself. In the middle of a pub!!!

This is 21st century Britain! I don't know what I'm expecting from this thread, am tempted to call the local press to see if the publicity could hurry things along, but that would probably be even more humiliating for her.

This woman has no family and is cold, miserable and in pain lying in the middle of a pub.

I just can't believe our country has fallen to this. God knows when an ambulance will arrive. She will end up getting more dehydrated and probably go into shock. And there is nothing anyone can do.

So distressing to see and my heart bleeds for the poor woman. Just prey that none of your relatives ever have a fall.

Let's hope an ambulance comes soon.

Yes it's awful, unless there's serious reforms to the NHS it's screwed though. Elderly falls aren't usually fatal (thankfully) and although painful, scary and uncomfortable for the person not usually as urgent as many other things, yet you cannot safely move someone as you risk further injury so sadly this means long long waits. The answer is probably separating out mental health ambulances, falls ambulances (they make a big % of call outs) and then ambulances.

So it seems the main issue people commenting on this post have is that a small business dared to stay open (whilst trying to look after someone in desperate need of medical care) and that random people with no medical training should have just bundle up a very vulnerable and person with a potential hip dislocation person into a car. It was not really very long ago that paramedics would have attended quite promptly. Maybe not in the few minutes for a cardiac arrest/heart attack/stroke- but this poor lady would not have been left lying on the floor for several hours.

We get the public services we deserve, it is very easy not to value what we had unless you needed them. There is a very real reason those of us who work in the public sector are striking. A massive real term paycut is the main focus in the press, but the main reason my peers are leaving is the cuts to services, working conditions and absolute inability to deliver care/services to vulnerable people and the resulting burn out - so people leaving in droves. This has not just happened overnight, the government were informed that this was going to happen years ago. Throw in a global pandemic and the current cost of living crisis.....

It is possible to be angry at the government for the current situation and also angry at the pub for staying open while this poor woman is, in the OP’s words, in the middle of it.

I think in that situation I'd call the ambulance to say the lady was struggling to breathe or had chest pains, it's lying, it's shit but it would get the ambulance there sooner and prevent suffering. What a horrible state this country is in.

I wish this was a troll post. I really wish it was. I have elderly relatives in another part of the country and it's really hit home as to what I would do if they fell.

I was a district nurse for many years and saw this a lot. Sadly though, many refuse to consider anything other then staying in their own homes, often frail with several co morbidities and completely unable to manage, refusing to pay for carers and in and out of A&E like a revolving door.

I don't disagree the NH S is in a mess btw,my 80/year old dad.had a fall.between Xmas and new year and was waiting hours for an ambulance and sat, in A &E all night ,where they established his arm was not broken ,but it was not an emergency unlike his 16 year old grandson who had several.life threatening condition,s going on and was seen straight away

@willstarttomorrow great post!!

I've known a few people stay on the floor for many hours after a fall... paramedics being unable to arrive to pick people up/transport to hospital being the reason - them being sat outside hospital waiting to offload patients for hours.
No beds, bedblocking as unable to discharge patients who don't need hospital beds, no nursing home beds, unable to discharge safely back to community, lack of ots, social workers, physios etc etc
We are just in crisis.
But get to A&E in an emergency and you'll be patched back together. I don't know how much longer for 😔

They kept the pub open? Pardon? So an elderly person was injured awaiting an ambulance imobile and they continued to stay open and serve with her there? You what? Maybe if they closed the pub and gave her privacy she'd have accepted drinks so she wasn't pissing herself in front of half the village having tea. Why didn't you leave when you realised she was there? 1 less person gawping.

You need to read the thread properly.

“Nice try”?? ODFOD! Can I not say I think labour AND conservatives are crap?? Can you not see why I think its a waste of money sending less urgent operations to private hospital to tick a box?? Taking more money out of the NHS as a consequence.. I’m not remotely saying the torys are doing better. They’re all the same. I was cabin crew for decades, I’ve seen politicians from both sides sitting in first class with their families pretending to be secretaries while quashing champagne on a “work jolly” (Tony Blair was the biggest conservative I’ve ever seen..). I’m saying don’t see a party that can solve this shit show we are living in. I detest this government, and don’t know whether I’d bother voting at all. But yeh, you have a go at me for being a Tory if you like. I’ve just said my father died because of the state of the NHS this year, and I nearly lost my mother too. I’m not sat here clapping the bloody torys. I just don’t think labour are going to miraculously save it either. I feel incredibly sad. And scared.

@HoppingPavlova

how on earth do you think the publicity could ‘hurry things along’? It’s not as though there are spare ambulances that just can’t be bothered. How would this magic one up?

@ThirdWorld s point isn't necessarily a bad one. Spare ambulances can't be magicked but cases can be prioritised over others.

Put it this way, if Rishi Sunak's mother had fallen and was waiting for an ambulance do you think she'd have been left there for 7 hours? Of course not. Why not? Because it would have been prioritised over other jobs - there is a power to do that.

I fear its unlikely in OPs situation that publicity would have helped but in some cases it could do depending on who is involved, where it is and what the issue is. Media involvement can put more pressure on public services to address an issue more quickly. You can see that easily via Twitter and newspaper problem pages where it becomes 'once I got involved your issue was swiftly resolved".

And that is the NHS working at its best, how it should and used to be. To work in it now tests my professional and personal integrity and MH.

But then the person who is actually having chest pains and struggling to breath has to wait longer, the ambulance doesn't make it there in time as they were dealing with someone who it turns out didn't have those symptoms. It's a terrible situation, but don't ever do this.

What a horrific situation 😢 I’ve got to agree with previous posters that the people who regularly misuse NHS services are not helping. Going to the GP for colds, A&E for minor bugs and injuries that are treatable at home, etc. The Government are obviously to blame for most of us but there are too many people not helping with the strain.

The most upsetting thing about this is they kept the pub open and all the customers carried on drinking and eating there. Hes it is awful the ambulances can't get there but there was nothing stopping the rest of you acting decently.

I did, they closed off part of the pub but kept the restaurant open, people could clearly see her if op was aware she was there and knew they were getting something to piss on as she left...

This has been going on for a long time in my area. In 2012 I rang for an ambulance for my mum who was having breathing problems - she was terminally ill with COPD and lung cancer. Whilst a first responder car arrived quickly, it was over an hour before an actual ambulance came to take her to the hospital. She was the highest category of emergency. The first responder kept calling ambulance control giving them a special code - was obvious to me that it meant a life threatening emergency and immediate ambulance required.

A couple of years later (so around 2014) I was having a conversation with a mum at school who said that she’s spent hours at the riding stables at the weekend as a child (not hers) had fallen off a horse. She waited with the child as she has medical training and was worried about the child going into shock. It took four hours for the ambulance to arrive with the child laying on the floor outside in freezing temperatures.

I can't help but think if it was someone well known like the local MP there would be ambulance available and they would not be left in this situation.

Completely agree, we get what we vote for. This incident isn't even shocking, its routine, this is the level of service we have due to our own free choice in the polling stations. Well done us.
Anyone tried to find an NHS dentist recently btw?

I don’t understand how it’s come to this in the U.K., can someone explain to me please? I’m in Portugal, a much poorer country, but an ambulance would arrive quite swiftly…I don’t understand

My local A & E had recorded the longest waiting time ever the other day, to resolve this they have now stopped recording waiting times! As for labour using the private health care to get you the much needed operation you needed well shame on them for actually managing and reducing the waiting lists and being proactive.
In fact Labour using private health-care worked very well, as they did this in areas where they were overstretched and the waiting lists were high, to ensure medical care was provided to those who needed it in a reasonable time and relieving some of the pressure which probably meant long term was more cost effective.

There is no way that ambulance waits were just as bad under Labour. That's absolute rubbish.

Do they still have first responders? I’ve had to call ambulances several times over the last few years, and can’t remember the last time I saw a first responder. They were almost like a checker to see if an ambulance was really needed. I expect there aren’t enough staff to do it nowadays.