97 Yr old Gran waiting 8 hours for an ambulance with a broken hip!

[LoveCherryTree]

My Gran, 97 years of age, given to this country in World War, paid her taxes and NI all her life. She fell today in her home at 12pm, she has a broken hip, my Father called 999 and it is now 8pm and still no ambulance.
She can’t go to the loo as she can’t get up, my Father who has Parkinson’s and my Uncle, who has throat cancer, both in their 70’s, sitting with her.
This country is broken beyond repair, I even tried to get a private ambulance and they said that it won’t make a difference because all the front line ambulances are sat at the hospital with patients inside because they can’t get them into the hospitals….I despair, so it’s better for my 97 year old Gran to be in agony and wet herself, I just can’t believe it! Anyone know a member of parliament I can talk to about this? I’m utterly disgusted!

I am so sorry. I hope your Gran gets to hospital soon.
In January my (now late) DH had a cardiac arrest at home; fwiw, the ambulance arrived within 4 minutes of my panicked phone call (miraculously my phone was both to hand and charged!) with about six paramedics. This was in one of the most deprived areas of the North-West, so not everywhere is entirely broken, just huge bits of it - there was a corridor being used as a ward in the hospital my DH went to (he was in the ITU, and I don't know what was wrong with the patients shunted in a corridor).
The NHS has been purposely run-down, I think, by people who want to sell health care for profit.
Hope your Gran recovers ok. I feel like crying - but that wouldn't do anyone any good - contact your MP.

Interesting point .... makes one wonder what kind of magic is involved in those countries with similar populations and where efficient healtcare isn't an issue at all 🤔

Are you medically trained? What reason did Mumsnet give for deleting your posts?

I really hope she has gone to hospital now.

We are all to blame for this shit show. For decades the NHS has been underfunded and yet we still voted in governments who didn't care enough to make it a priority.

Secondly, everyday I see families who try to refuse to let their relatives be discharged because they don't want to pay for social care or nursing home care, even though the patient is medically well and doesn't have criteria to reside.

They are guilty of abusing a system that is massively overstretched. Like it or not (and I would rather social care wasn't means assessed) everyone knows the rules re having to pay for packages of care now. Trying to refuse this won't work and just causes the system to block up.

Finally, for the love of God, will everyone please ensure that their grannie and grandad have suitable footwear (lost count of the 90 year olds I see in fluffy mules) and no loose rugs to trip over and if they have a Zimmer frame try to get them to use it as a mobility aid and not a clothes airer.

Accidents happen (my own Mum had a 9hour long lie with a fractured neck of femur) but we can all try to minimise the risks.

Your grans personal life sacrifices and payments into the system will not and should not give her priority
Priority is given on medical need

Unfortunately that isn’t happening for people these days due to a high demand on an NHS that is on its knees.
I would write to your MP

I would say a 97-year-old woman with a broken hip who has been waiting nearly 10 hours for an ambulance is a priority actually.

I agree on medical grounds
just not her payments into the system or war time activities which was my point.

Really hope she's been seen by now.

I think the answer is more hospitals, medics and beds, not forcing people who are unable to care for themselves or not well enough yet out.

Whole thing is on the point of disintegration I think- I was shocked with A&E today-e massively so. There were people there who 100% could have dealt with their issue differently. I personally watched a guy with an infected ingrown toenail kick off with 9 family members with him. 9 people- his wife, 4 kids under 10 and his parents and 2 friends.
Did not need A&E or 9 people with him - kids ran round the room screeching and in the car park while patient was wheeled outside for a fag and bitched about the NHS.
So many very elderly people in dire straits- investment in care homes/elder care is so underfunded but the harsh reality is people didn't live routinely til their late 90's until recently.
I was only transiting A&E today after taking my poor old mum (80) to a routine appointment. She has had a few admissions via A&E as cannot breathe/low oxygen. She was terrified last time she was admitted and we do everything we can to avoid it. In truth she would have died 5 years ago had it not been for family/medical advances.
Improvement in elder care is a massive issue. She has family close by who support her but god help those who don't. It's truly awful and a legacy of the Tory Government running the service into the ground that Labour now have to try and fix.

Oh this is awful OP 😢 I hope your gran is finally in hospital and given treatment

I agree. In my area there used to be a falls prevention team. If an elderly person had a fall, they would visit them at home afterwards to put in place whatever needed to happen to prevent future falls. It could be new slippers, repairing carpet hazards, or physio to improve balance. It was cut under the Tories. Things like this save money in the long run.

It was awful under labour too.

Maybe it was, but if so, it was considerably less awful. (Yes, the y-axis should start at 0, and yes, the little arrow on the top was added for political purposes, but the lines are based on real NHS data by the woke lefty commies at the checks notes Financial Times.)

100% (call handler for a decade)

I actually had to ring 999 for myself (you know it's bad if I had to do that) and ended up speaking to a nurse who was lovely and obviously frustrated
I had maxed out pain relief, was on the floor shouting in pain and couldn't get up to get in a taxi. 3hr wait by which time I knew the pain would have passed

Thankfully my GP has given me morphine for home now, I said I need something for the acute pain flares

I really do think age makes a difference. I was asked about my mother’s independence levels (she was very independent) while she was being resuscitated from a sudden collapse at A&E. It seemed very much as if they were trying to weight up whether it was worth the effort of trying to save her. Was also very callously told that “she had had a good life” at 79, by a medic that knew nothing about her, while telling me they wouldn’t be making any further attempts at resuscitation. Although, edited to say, I have the same issues as you with my son and yes, things could be improved regarding disabled people, but they do try to a point, just sometimes give up when it’s too difficult which shouldn’t be the case.

The truth is we pay less for our medical care than most other developed countries but expect a service like theirs. You get what you pay for.

What a terrible thing to happen OP. So sorry to hear this.
we have a seriously high aging population that are swamping other age categories, and lots of the population out of work, so in effect more people taking out of the system than putting in (and using far more than they have contributed) Unless everyone puts in more - pensioners and those not working included, the system will never work as it will be under funded.

I thought the person themselves had to agree to a do not resuscitate.
Is that not the case anymore

Some people probably end up using it far more than they would have if they had been treated properly and in a timely manner to start with, instead of having to wait so long their issues develop into worse issues or complications that cause long term and permanent illness.

I lied on the floor for more than 24 hours with a broken hip and shoulder, waiting for an ambulance a couple years back.
They'll be thinking that she's indoors and being able to be kept warm and fed so it's less of a priority than someone who's in the middle of the road, for example.
It's really terrible. But once she gets there she should be helped pretty swiftly. Broken hip in elderly patient will be prioritised as much as possible. I hope that she gets surgery and recovers well. I saw lots of elderly ladies in the ward recovering from hip surgery after a fall. Sometimes they can be moving ok after a week.
Please don't worry too much. X

That's really unfair. Hospitals are full of social care patients because the care system is broken. People are not allowed to be discharged until there is suitable care in place ((quite rightly) but what happens in reality is the hospital initially tries to push (or assume) relatives will do it when they don't have the capability do so. If relatives insist on an assessment and this finds they do need care, then this often takes weeks to put in place, often because they have to wait for a "slot" to become available before the care can start . If a capacity assessment is needed, again this can take weeks. If a patient does not need care (which the hospital/care team assesses) then the patient will just be discharged - ime this can literally involve a patient being taken home by patient transport with no warning, sometimes late at night. If a patient refuses a care package and they have capacity, they will again just be discharged. So it's not correct that patients who don't need care would just be kept on wards indefinitely. There are also interim facilities for patients who need nursing care but not hospital care where they can be discharged too before going home.

The system is clunky and inefficient and there isn't enough care available. That isn't the fault of patients or their relatives who are just trying to ensure that their relative isn't just discharged with no support when they can't take care of themselves.

I have had years going through this process repeatedly with my Nan (at various stages of heading care at various levels, refusing care, losing capacity et c etc so I know exactly how it works and how difficult it is.

It wasn’t with me. I was told they would not be doing it and that while they were talking to me, which they had insisted on doing before I could see her, that she could die any minute. They then said, “do you agree”, twice, as I didn’t answer the first time, too overwhelmed with what was going on. I thought was odd afterwards as they had already told me the decision was out of my hands and they would not be doing it, so I don’t know why I was forced to answer if I agreed. I wanted to get to see her before she died, so to be let to do that and they fact that they also said she would have brain damage and punctured lungs after the attempts, I had to agree.

@StandingSideBySide It has never been the case. Patients are supposed to be asked for consent, but it is a medical decision for the Drs to make.