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!

The Tories totally screwed up the NHS. It will take years for Labour to fix it sadly.

So sorry your granny is in this position,its a joke people.are waiting that long and in pain...is there a wheelchair @ home or easily borrowed? If she was able to be transferred onto that a wheelchair taxi could take.hee then ? I know it's not ideal but at least she would be in hospital ! The system is seriously broke

This can be very dangerous. Don't move her . You could complicate things much more .

I’m so sorry to hear about your gran and I hope she is seen through.

I do wonder if this sort of scenario should be taken into account when discussing assisted dying. If I was 97 and reading this I’d be wondering if it would be less painful to pop my clogs before it all happened. And the cynic in me says is that what the powers that be really want as it’s cheaper and is it therefore the beginning of a slippery slope.

But then on the other hand I saw a grandparent go through the most awful last few months and she would gladly have taken some help. Who knows.

sorry to go off on a tangent. Hope there is good news for your gran

My husband collapsed with kidney infection. Waited 17 hours for ambulance. Died 2 days later from blood clot. Inquest decided the long lie had been a factor with dehydration and infection. This was in Wales

You put “developed chest pain” in quotes implying it was fictitious chest pain made up to make the ambulance arrive quicker. I don’t think the previous poster misread your post, it’s how I read it too.

What a load of twaddle. It was awful under labour too. No one can fix it, the demand is too high and too many overpaid managers spoiling the broth. What it needs are more hospitals, more decent front line staff and more ambulances to cope with the ever growing population including the millions of people we support each year from other countries which was never such an issue 30/40/50 years ago as immigration was more limited. We can't cope because there's too many people, too many who run off to hospital/call an ambulance when not needed and the NHS is very poorly run.

Not true.

Had a nightmare in A and E today with non verbal disabled five year old screaming most of the time. Sat in a tiny room for nearly 12 hours. He was really distressed. I think the staff tried, but I think they were just too frazzled to really understand why we were there. It's not about age. It's just shit.

Nobody seemed to understand that traditional interventions don't work on children with complex needs. He needs restraining just to take obs.

The shocking thing is, is that this isn’t shocking at all.

I’ve heard so many similar stories. Vulnerable, elderly patients waiting 10+ hours in pain on the floor with significant injuries because of no availability for emergency ambulances.

This country is in a fucking shambles and it’s going to take years to fix.

I feel so sorry for your gran and your family OP. It’s not fair 😓

Yes. There are too many people
snd not the infrastructure in place!

Well perhaps in your world an 80 year old person is expendable and them dying in severe pain a few days later is neither here nor there

This website will help you to contact the correct MP.

https://www.writetothem.com/

I put" chest pains" in inverted commas as I didn't want to imply she had actually had a heart attack or clot in lungs . I did realise the most likely cause was positional pain from laying / falling on a hard floor but wasn't prepared to take that chance . However having read my post back I can see how it could be interpreted. ( she actually had a broken rib in addition to fractured neck of femur )

With an ever increasing elderly population, it's only going to get a lot worse. It really doesn't matter which party is in government it's too late. NHS/Social care is utterly fucked.

That's horrific.

It happened to my 90+ mum a couple of years ago - she too was waiting 8 hours, outside on the hottest day of the year. She was then waiting in the hospital until 25 hours after the fall.

A word of caution - after her operation she may appear to have dementia, but it's the result of having the operation. It's very distressing at the time but they do come out of that state.

Personally I would use Twitter to contact my MP and every newspaper I can think of. It's so shocking that anyone has to wait like that, let alone a lady of that age.

Who is with her now?

My own 98 yo gran is in hospital too. 2 days in corridor, bed after bed after bed of elderly people. Day 3 got moved into an assessment bay with 6 others. This is still a&e, not an actual ward. Wait time 60+ hours. There was a woman sat on the floor of the main a&e doors with an IV bag, sick bowl and blanket round her. Queue was out the door. One guy was either asleep or dead (didn’t move whole time we were visiting) in another doorway. Outside car park 20+ ambulances all with engines running and patients on board.
I was shocked at how bad it was. Really really shocked.

I am going to write to them, but will it do any good? Probably not! I’ll try because I’m so disgusted with this situation!

That’s not the point - I accept that it can potentially be life threatening. Lying about ‘chest pains’ that aren’t present is wrong end of

I understand now I thought you meant that you had lied but thankyou for clarifying that wasn’t the case

Yet, many elderly people do die precisely because they have a fall and a long lie on the floor. Your reply is ill informed.

OP I'm sorry your gran is going through this. Horrible. Thank goodness your dad and uncle are there even if they can't do much they can make sure she's warm, has drinks, food. Our health service is broken and it's heartbreaking

@LoveCherryTree and this is before christmas week "dump your granny" time which is coming up!!! god help the country!

You can't put someone with a broken hip into a wheelchair.

And with the cost of housing and cost of living most people have to work so much that they couldn’t take care of their elderly relatives even if they wanted to.