What's the longest you have had to wait for an ambulance?7

[OneUmberJoker]

7 hours

About 15 mins. Hit and run. A kid had been knocked off his bicycle.

2.5 hours. Not for me but for a stranger I was with who had been critically injured in an accident (about as bad as it can get without being actually dead).

I'm not surprised people can't afford taxis. Last time I got a taxi to the nearest A&E, it was a tad under £40. That was 5 years ago, I suspect it would be a fair bit more now.

And the taxis are metered, so it costs more if it takes longer because of heavy traffic or similar, so you have no way of knowing how much it will cost.

My brother is currently complaining that our elderly mum, who suffers from dementia, had to wait nearly 24 hours for an ambulance after a fall. He says that as the risk of her physical condition worsening she was not able to properly eat or sleep whilst she was waiting which made her more confused and distressed. He believes and official complaint should be made, and a letter written to our MP as this clearly shows a broken system (but has made it clear he thinks I should be the one to do this).

This is, technically, true and I don't doubt that the ambulance service is over stretched and some people are suffering serious consequences. However, she fell at home and had no physical injuries but a nurse who came out to visit her recommended going to A&E for some tests as mum thought she might have passed out but couldn't be sure and didn't know how long she may have been unconscious for. This was approx 12 hours after the fall and in the meantime mum had been able to move around, eat etc. My brother decided (despite the nurse advising that this would take longer) that mum should go by ambulance. I am not sure why as she was mobile and he had his car at her house and planned to go with her anyway. He claims he was not sure how she'd manage getting in and out of the car. So she would clearly have been at the bottom of the priority list for an ambulance. He decided she should not go to bed or try to make a proper meal just in case the ambulance arrived. The ambulance actually arrived within 12 hours of being called.

This is harsh but a reality - those posting about elderly relatives dying shortly after a wait need to honestly question whether it was just as simple as that persons’ time was up.
Pulling an elderly frail person back from the brink rarely ends well for the patient.

Obviously, a proportion of elderly people who are unwell enough to need to call an ambulance will be likely to die soon whatever happens.

But it is also true that spending a prolonged period lying on the floor after a fall (known as a 'long lie') greatly increases the risks of complications and poor outcomes. I don't think we should be accepting that someone who spends six, 12 or 24 hours on the floor waiting for an ambulance would just have died anyway.

Ambulance services (locally anyway) will pay for a taxi to the hospital if it’s safe to do so
usually after a phone assessment if the patient has no other way of getting there, needs to be seen but doesn’t require an ambulance

About half an hour.
My youngest fell unconscious while she had flu. She was 3, my 5 year old was asleep, I was a single mum, it was 2am and id just moved so didn't know anyone to help. I had about 3 ambulances in the end, they treated her at home and were fabulous. There were no long lasting complications. It was a new strain of flu that year and they didn't want anyone with it in hospital.

The only other time I called an ambulance it took 5 minutes but the guy was dead by the time they got to me.

Anything else I've got a taxi, and the taxi driver has never charged me.

My uncle was in a car accident a few months ago and the fire brigade took him to hospital as the ambulance didn't show up after 10 minutes.

It was lucky they did as he kept saying he was fine but he had broken 3 ribs and punctured a lung! He kept trying to go to work but the fire officers wouldn't let him.
He's on loads of pain medication for a disability so didn't feel a thing, so a bit unusual.

5 hours on a rugby pitch with spinal injuries and subsequent spiral break of tibular and fibular.

This is only relevant if you don’t believe that dignity in death has any value. We can all imagine a better death than after several hours on a concrete floor.

6 hours at a school.
We could not move the pupil as they had an extremely severe dislocation of the knee, which could not be reinserted. Everytime we touched them they screamed.

20 mins for a 15 month old with bronchiolitis and croup who was really struggling to breathe in the middle of the night - they were incredible and had given him steroids and oxygen within two minutes of arriving to hold him over until we got to hospital. Feel very fortunate they got to us so quickly. The ambulance was sent by 111 when we called them for advice and told them his heart rate and oxygen level rather than by us calling 999.

We live in London near two big hospitals so not sure if that makes it quicker.

I was told I would have to wait 7 hours for an ambulance for my 5 month old who was having breathing problems. Obviously I didn't actually wait and got someone to drive us to hospital.

A colleague of mine is from the Birmingham area and worked in Rugby until recently. He estimated that he could usually expect an ambulance for a client within the hour there. It’s funny how people’s experiences differ but obviously this depends on the demand to service at the time. He doesn’t believe ambulances actually exist in our current area, we have always ended up taking people ourselves due to the extended wait times.

I work in a school. One of our lads got knocked off his bike by a car on the street outside school, his friend saw it happen and ran into school to get help. He was lying in the middle of the road and his arm was obviously badly broken (pointing the wrong way), we had no idea whether he'd hit his head or not. We waited for 3 hours for the Ambulance. He was freezing lying in the road but we'd been told not to try to move him so all we could do was pile our coats on top of him and try to keep him calm.

Sounds about right. Problem is cat 1 is supposed to be 8 minutes. Cat 2 30.

If you have a cardiac arrest, serious bleed or can’t breathe. That’s you or your family dead.

I fell off a horse a few years ago. Drove home and couldn't get out of the car I'd seized up so badly. Called non-emergency number for advice who promptly said I was slurring and missing words out (I was totally unaware!) and that they'd called an ambulance, and under no circumstances was I to move. This was just after 8pm.
By 1am I'd given up waiting, got my ex partner to drag me out of the car, dosed myself up on painkillers and went to bed, having called to cancel the ambulance.
Went down to a&e the next day who promptly attached me to a spinal board 🤦‍♀️ I had a head to hip scan (not MRI, the other one?) and fine, just concussed, thankfully.

I live very rurally and have a heart problem. The ambulance always gets here within half an hour and I cannot fault their care. They are always wonderful.
I wish I could say the same for what happens when I get to A&E. The contrast is huge.

I’ve never needed one, but 8 mins for late DH. London/NK borders. Pretty good.👍

My late DMIL (94) waited 27 hours after falling out of bed and fracturing her femur in a care home. Because she was in a care home and being looked after, she wasn't viewed as urgent. Then she was hospitalised for six weeks, before discharge back to the care home, where she died five hours later -- as soon as she was alone.

Miscarriage, told to phone ambulance by gynae ward, about 40 minutes

Transfer from attempted homebirth with ds2, midwife called ambulance, about 20 minutes i think

Car crash outside our house, about 20 minutes

Ds2 collapsed at park run, dr called ambulance, 20 minutes

When ds2 overdosed (why is it always ds2?!?!) dh just drove him in as we only live 10 minutes from the hospital. Although the reaction he got when he arrived made us think in hindsight phoning ahead might have been a good idea

I called 111 and they said they were sending an ambulance for me. Gave up waiting after 4 hours. It was early hours and DH doesn’t drive. As soon as a taxi office was open I called a taxi. I had sepsis.

50 mins with a suspected heart attack, that landed up being as long as it would have taken us to drive. Fortunately I was fine.
Not impressed with the speed of response but couldn't fault the care both in the ambulance and at A&E. West Wilts. As we age I think living closer to the hospital would be a good idea as we are equi distance from 2 hospitals and the same ambulances cover both.

Not us, but 80 year old neighbour.

He went out at 0930 to scrape the ice from his car window and slipped on ice. Ambulance called. It finally arrived just before 1800!! This was in January and he was outside all that time. We offered to take him in our estate car but was told it was highly dangerous to do this as any movement from the broken bone could have severed an artery. Appalling. We covered him in blankets and ran an extension lead to an electric blanket but could not stop the cold coming up from underneath him.