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!

They are mainly for people who have fallen, have had a continence issue etc. when she presses the alarm the person at the control centre will try and speak to her and ascertain what support she would need, an ambulance will then be called if required. The alert responders will then be asked to go out for back up , but they could already be in someone's house waiting for an ambulance , helping someone get changed or using a manga cushion to get someone up from the floor so it could be a while before they get there. In the meantime family would be called to attend

I think you are describing a health insurance system as in the US. Not a social insurance system as in France, Germany, Austria.

If the NHS is not broken perhaps you would be kind enough to explain the following:

A 97 year old lady lying on the floor with a broken hip for double digit hours

People unable to access GP care

Unacceptable waits in A&E departments

Unacceptable waits for surgeries such as knee replacements, etc

Suboptimal care for women and women's issues

Endless maternity care scandals.

We have private healthcare and use it fkr elective issues. There is a significant need for some private provision of A&E services. We presently pay twice and our contributions to the NHS far outweigh our private healthcare insurance fees. Whilst happy to pay twice, I am not prepared to pay more for the execrable standards of NHS services presently available in the UK.

None of those things are the fault of the funding model. The one thing we’re unanimous about is the need for reform in the NHS. Any kind of insurance will simply add costs and syphon more money away from the front line. The NHS needs less bureaucracy, not more. Private A&E provision would be madness - that provision would be underused, wasting valuable resources and unethical. I’m appalled by the concept.

I can not imagine a worse solution for the NHS than private. If there is no money, then there isn't a penny spare for profit, and that's why the private sector would be involved.

My 90yr old neighbour broke her elbow falling in her garden.

999 told her to get a taxi to hospital.

Some examples of A&E staff being rude as witnessed by you would help.

All that would happen is the private companies would cream off the healthy patients who they can make a profit from, and those with ongoing health needs would be left to a public healthcare scheme that is significantly worse than now.
And no private insurance scheme will want to cover a 97 year old.

I'm sure this won't at all influence those voting for assisted dying

OKI DOKI:

In A&E with a broken back and severely broken wrist that needed surgery:

A nurse and administrator screaming at the ambulance crew for registering a patient and keeping them waiting. The crew were standing in front of them waiting fir them to finish chatting.

An administrator yelling at a patient who politely inquired about waiting times as they had waited six hours already.

A nurse yelling at a family because they took a bottle of water from a table. They shouldn't have but I'll caveat that with the fact that I was not offered so much as a glass of water after being in the dept for 12 hours and after a procedure under conscious sedation.

The nurse whontold my husband to sit six rows away from me rather than stand next to me as instructed. Twice he said "no thank you, I'm staying by my wife's side" the third time he was more authoritative and said "I have told you that I am not moving from here". She then bent down so our faces were level and rolled her eyes at me.

The behaviour of the F2 who spoke to me as though I was a piece of sh1t without a brain as she conducted a frailty review, having assumed I was retired because I was over 60. Notwithstanding the fact she dismissed my concerns about my back and tried to refuse an Xray. Then told me there were no new breaks. There were.

Is that enough for you? Upheld after a formal complaint.

Would you like me to pm you the name of the Surrey hospital?

A lot of yelling and screaming going on, the noise must be intolerable.
Thank God it's not my Trust, not that I have any intention of going there, fingers crossed.

I know this sounds cruel but with current issues I don’t think using own transport to get to hospital with a broken elbow is totally unreasonable. Yes it would be really awful for someone of her age but it wouldn’t have occurred to me to phone an ambulance when I broke my arm - I got driven to A&E. To me an ambulance is for a life threatening injury / illness or someone who cannot be safely moved. You can sit in a taxi with a broken elbow although it would be pretty horrible.

It was absolutely horrendous. And yes, the noise was headsplitting. It may not be representative of the NHS across the board but for local people here, it informs their opinions.

So, update...she had broken her leg! My 97 year old Gran sat for 10 hours with a broken leg, the ambulance staff told my 73 year old Dad to try and get her to hospital himself, he couldn't even pick her up by himself. If he had tried to move her god knows what sort of mess she could be in now!
She then proceeded to sit in the ambulance for 2 hours and then in the hospital hallway for a further 2 hours, they gave her morphine finally which made her ill so by the time she had any pain relief it was 14 hours after she fell!
I despair!

Are you on commission for the videos/books you are plugging here and elsewhere?

If so can I suggest you spend some of the royalties on "Guided Punctuation, the gift of making posts comprehensible"

Oh how horrible OP 😢 but good news that it's not a hip fracture. Hopefully leg fracture won't require an operation

I'm afraid she needs a blood transfusion and she does indeed need an operation for the leg, it's not a straight forward brake!

Which country is this based on? Its completely at odds with my and family members' experiences of living and working under a number of the European insurance based health care models.

Consistently access was better, care was better and coverage of conditions was better. Nor is it the case that chronic conditions are excluded - its not legal to do that under state backed insurance models.

Its not an accident that none of them have gone for the full fat bureaucratic fiefdoms which form "the" NHS.

Read the research. All insurance health schemes spend between 3% and 10% of the overall cost on selling the insurance and managing claims.
Insurance based schemes are better in many countries because they pay more for their healthcare than we do in the UK.
My other comments about private health insurance were based on UK current private health insurance. Because of the existence of the NHS there is no government regulations about ensuring private health insurance for all. So what exists often excludes lots of conditions and can be extremely expensive once you hit 70.

My gran had a hip replacement at 94 and carried on for another 3 years. She did need help to go to the toilet and get dressed, but could still walk using a walker and enjoy life.

Once you get to that age, come back and give us a more informed opinion.

They can give morphine in the ambulance