To be furious

[Threelittleduck]

How has the NHS come to this? My DD had a seizure in the summer. We went to hospital but discharged later.
Nothing has happened but today she had two seizures. One at around 9 and one an hour ago. Called ambulance after her seizure at 9, they said it would be hours for an ambulance but 4 hours? After she's had a second seizure? I can't drive her as had a Covid jab yesterday and am feeling sick and dizzy and DH has been drinking.
I mean thank fuck it's not life threatening! (I know she'd be higher priority before anyone takes that seriously).
She's asleep on the sofa now and I'm sat with her, feeling tired, ill and worried about DD
Is this what the country has come to? Is that government actually going to do anything to help our healthcare system and support those who work in it.

And people who are slating my DH for drinking is unfair. She hadn't had a fit in ages, he was invited out for drinks with his mates, no-one could predict this would happen.
Infact the doctor last time said it's really common to have one fit and never suffer again. Obviously not the case for DD though.

It’s a disgrace op. Your story is the norm now.

Even I would probably use a taxi if o had to get to hospital urgently

Most ambulances are queued up outside of hospitals as they can’t get the patients out of the ambulance due to no beds

@Threelittleduck Thank you for the update
Hope your daughter gets seen by the neurologist clinic soon and has some respite from the seizures.

Edited, made a typo error.

You are right that waiting time for ambulances and to be seen by A&E/consultants/specialists are worryingly and unacceptably long and I expect that there are people dying waiting to be seen.

My grandmother fell at her nursing home last week cracking her skull on a sink. She was then non mobile so could not be put into a car/taxi. She waited 7hrs for an ambulance to arrive, then spent another 5hrs in the back of the ambulance in the A&E bay waiting to be admitted because there was nowhere else for her to wait/no beds.

She's as fine as any 95yr old with a skull fracture could be, and I get that she was "stable" hence the wait being deemed acceptable. I have to trust that everyone seen before her needed to be seen more. But it's very hard to see a loved one wait like that, so I sympathise completely.

I hope your daughter gets some answers soon.

Actually yes at least one poster said I should drive despite feeling dizzy

Oh crikey, I'm not lecturing you. These forums are a moving conversation where people you know contribute to the conversation, no need to be so prickly.

I am informing you that NHS care in hospitals is not free for overseas visitors so you know you are informed about that since I read that you were under the misunderstanding that people come in from overseas and use hospitals for free.

The NHS is free at the point of use for UK citizens and that is what I was referring to as I think was clear. What you pay in NI contributions is a tiny amount of the true cost of what the NHS actually costs of course.

I am very glad to hear the OP's daughter got the care she needed once she got to hospital and she did in fact get an ambulance after a wait, and it's a shame in a scary situation she was unable to access something that she assumed she would be able to access but we learn to temper our expectations through these experiences and the ambulances are only going out to people in dire emergencies it would seem, having lost a family member, who really did need one, I can personally vouch on that front.
Hope the OP can get some rest today.

@Threelittleduck thank you for the update. I hope they can get to the bottom of this. Hopefully, you will get some sleep tonight and feel better tomorrow.

The NHS is free at the point of use for UK citizens

No, this is wrong. It is free at the point of use for UK residents. UK citizens who live abroad are not entitled to free NHS treatment.

The other reason for the long wait would be that she was in a nursing home so would have had nursing support/assessment available.

Please stop with the it's the evil tories rhetoric Labour started the rot

Hope your OK now OP and your daughter is feeling better.

I got rushed in Thursday and after 11 hours saw a doctor who said my heart was fine (was by then had been sat for 11 hours lol) sent me for an xray and when I got back I was a sweaty gasping chest pain mess I watched the staff look through me rather than notice in case it meant they had to admit me 😆 whilst other patients tried to get me water etc.
It's over run is the problem I think

I hope your dd is doing a bit better today .very sensible not to drive. My dd had a covid jab felt dizzy a few hours later and fainted .

Anyone with common sense wouldn't. You might as well be drink driving. You would be very silly to even consider it.

You clearly know not a lot about seizures. The fact she had 2 very close together is especially worrying and without oxygen, taking a taxi is risky if her DD had been having full tonic clonic seizures.

So glad you and DD were taken in eventually @Threelittleduck .
I think you were correct not taking her in a taxi.

Seizures are really scary - even when you’ve seen them have one before!
My son’s last seizure was in the early morning. He was 6 and we had caught the ferry to France at 4:30am so he hadn’t eaten, had low blood sugar and was tired from waking. About 10 mins out of the Calais terminal, down the autoroute, he started having a seizure in his car seat, as he was falling asleep! Luckily there was a rest stop and services not far ahead and we quickly stopped and laid him flat out on the grass and put him into recovery position.

When he came round, we got him to eat and drink and then he went to sleep in his car seat fine. He had 6 seizures in 6 months - 5 of them when falling asleep.
So scary!
I hope your DD is seen soon in the neuro clinic 🤞

They didn’t have oxygen at home while they waited for hours either.

Like I said doctor recommended going by ambulance and even after the wait they think it's still the best option. As I said she did have further seizures yesterday and one could have happened while I was driving which would panic me and she could have hurt herself.
Not that it matters now
Spoke to the doctor who hopes to discharge her around 2pm

That’s good news @Threelittleduck . Hope she gets some good rest and doesn’t have any more seizures.

To those posters who are saying that @Threelittleduck should have womaned up and driven her dd to hospital despite feeling dizzy and lightheaded, the NHS says that you should NOT do any dangerous activity, including driving, if you are feeling dizzy.

"do not do anything that could be dangerous while you're dizzy, like driving, climbing a ladder or using heavy machinery"

Here

I agree @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius