Paramedics made my father go to hospital

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My father has atrial fibrillation. He has had this for years.

He has been told multiple times what to do in the case of an episode of AF. Today, he had one while I was visiting. It took a long time to pass, so in line with his consultant’s plan my mother called 999, after the usual medications had been given at home.

In the time it took for the paramedics to arrive, the attack passed and when they did arrive, it had been nearly an hour since it had ended.

They still made him go to hospital as they “couldn’t rule out a heart attack”, despite my father insisting that he knows his body, knows what an AF episode feels like and knows when it has passed. All he wanted was to go to bed and sleep off the effects of the beta blockers he had taken.

They still essentially made him go to hospital, saying that they would make him sign forms if he didn’t which showed he had refused medical advice. I was present and the paramedics essentially made it sound as though he would be at the back of the queue if it returned and he needed an ambulance again.

Fast forward 10 hours and he’s still in hospital, no doctors available to read his ECG or his blood test results, and he’s been sleeping in a hard plastic chair. AIBU to think this is ridiculous? Paramedics really shouldn’t be encouraging patients to attend hospital when it’s not necessary.

I think it's unfair to call paramedics bullles though, you are understandably angry that he hasn't been seen for a very long time but that's indicative that A&E was very busy so therefore so are the ambulances and that's more what they were trying to warn you of, it's also been the weekend so that makes the demand on the ambulance service higher. They can't promise you that if your dad suddenly did start to deteriorate that an ambulance could get to you quickly. I don't think they blacklist people but they might be a bit wary of prioritising deploying an ambulance to some one that had one earlier and then didn't want it over someone else who has taken seriously ill or injured.

i doubt they were saying an ambulance wouldn’t be sent but more of a ‘we can’t guarantee you would get an ambulance if another emergency arises’. These are two different things. Everyone knows how much pressure the ambulance service has these days. As for A&E, I can assure you that ecg would have been checked once it was done, you may not have been told the results. The nurse taking it would not just leave the checking as if something serious happened their job would be on the line. No nurse wants to end up giving evidence at coroners court. Blood results…where I am it’s all on computer, abnormal blood results pop up when you open the list of patients currently in A&E and the labs also phone these through and take the name of the person receiving the call.

A&E is not a prison…he is more than welcome to leave. Paperwork needs to be signed to say he understands the risks, safety netting advice was understood and the options to get help if needed.

you make it sound like it was a personal attack by staff….sometimes staff have seen things happen with a similar situation, such events never leave that persons memory. Or maybe there was something on the ecg that didn’t sit right and def needed a work up at A&E. In any case, your father clearly agreed to go with them!
once you’ve worked in the industry, you would know you cannot force anyone and there are plenty of elderly patients who are adamant they are not going. He had the choice regardless of what they said. But it also has to be the patients decision, not the relatives.

Agree. Didn't have to go. Doesn't have to stay.

As a mum of a paramedic this post has touched a nerve with me !
You rang an ambulance and they attended, your father didn’t want to go to hospital.
They were doing their job, which again you requested.
These paramedics train at uni for 3 years, getting into a huge amount of debt, they work 12 hour shifts, sometimes with no breaks and your on here moaning about them and the hospital staff!
You should remember that this service is Free and that they have your fathers best interest at heart!
And what they was saying is that If you don't go and call them again for assistance, you will of course be put to the back of the Que as there's a risk that you would again decline their advice!
Give your head a wobble!

I agree with everything except the last sentence. I think it’s very unlikely they were saying they’d be put to the back of the queue for previously refusing treatment. What they most likely meant (based on OPs ever changing story), is that if something happened later on, the chances of them getting an ambulance there in time to help was minimal (given general waiting times and the local event she mentioned).

So you called them out, didn’t want to take their advice because you felt you knew better, are annoyed that they were doing their jobs and covering themselves for any further repercussions by suggesting he go to hospital and ended up with a long wait. If he’d had a heart attack you’d be moaning. He could’ve refused to go? He could leave the hospital now 🤷🏻‍♀️ so yes yabu

The paramedics are doing their job. If things are so bad that you call an ambulance then it is right they encourage your father to attend a&e (otherwise why call??). He could have signed to not go. They have to be forceful, they are used to people trying to sue who sign but say they ‘didn’t understand the consequences fully’. I hope your father is ok.

Why are you not grateful that they took your fathers health seriously? There are mnany of us for which that was not the case, ending in death

I can completely sympathise with you.
My sister's and I had two elderly parents to look after and it was always a constant battle.
There definitely needs to be a change in the system, as often when they are taken in to hospital there aren't the resources to look after them, (a prime example is sitting in a plastic chair for 10 hours, or in A&E for a day!, without being seen), and I'm sure that health wise and emotionally they suffer more than if they were allowed to stay home.
You are NOT being unreasonable and the emergency health care system has to change.
It needs to be more flexible and they need to work with the patients rather than against them.

He had a choice to sign but he didn’t.
no it wasn’t a heart attack but one day it might be and then he and you will be grateful he’s in the right place.
Given the time it took it took for the ambulance to come, the paramedics were probably concerned that if it was more serious and a heart attack occurred the ambulance wouldn’t get there in time.

Well said, l totally agree with every word. Get so sick of people ripping good people to shreds. Until you have walked in their shoes, they have no complaints. Hopefully next time they may want to ring for an ambulance, they should decide if they really do want it, and let someone who really needs it have instead. Thank your daughter for all she does...👏👏👏

You read it as that, but what they probably meant was it took an hour to arrive the first time, it could take the same or longer the next time.

Sign the waiver and stay at home 💁 if you're so certain that your dad knows his AF so well and he's absolutely certain he doesn't need a hospital then it wouldn't matter that he's back of the queue for the next ambulance because from what youre implying, all your dad needed to do was sleep it off.

But the family called a 999 ambulance

They are allowed to stay home, they aren't under arrest. But if they need (& want) emergency medical treatment - they need to be in the hospital.

If they don't need (or want) emergency medical treatment, probably pointless calling an ambulance.

But sometimes, as is the case here, her father has stabilised, but they made him afraid not to go to the hospital.
Surely one person less in a hospital is a bonus, even if sometimes they're called out again.

Have any of you actually had to care for elderly parents who are constantly having falls and emergencies and had to navigate the current health system?
I think not, because if you had you wouldn't be making these generic comments.
The reality of these situations are very different to what should happen.

For them to say he’d be at the back of the queue for future calls is disgraceful. Sums up the toxic culture in the ambulance service. I’d make a complaint, not that it would be listened to as there is also a cover up culture where whistleblowers face negative career consequences

Yeah, who cares if it’s a pile of nonsense! Complain complain and practice the daily mail sad face!

There is no ‘back of the queue’. My BiL is a paramedic. They have a duty of care and are legally obliged to attend no matter how many times you refuse to attend hospital as long as you are judged to have the capacity to make that decision. You need to give your own head a wobble if you think the ambulance service can ‘punish’ you for not attending hospital.

There is no ‘back of the queue’. Op has either misunderstood or is embellishing. Stop enabling this nonsense.

I have. Mum. 95 with vascular dementia. Every time I’ve had to ring 999 they have attended. Even when she hasn’t been evaluated as needing hospital treatment. Every. Single. Time.

>

That still doesn’t make it better for a patient to be at home, an ambulance ride away if it’s likely they’re going to have an event.

No such thing as “back of queue” as they attend every call even the time wasters and the hoax calls. They maybe said if you choose not to go to hospital the next ambulance may not get to you in time (they had to wait for hours for this one) but if they said that it’s because it was the truth and a possibility of the repercussions of the patient not going into hospital that the patient has to be made aware of.