Paramedics made my father go to hospital

[wecangoupupup]

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.

Absolutely this. @wecangoupupup is spinning and exaggerating from her original message because we’re not all going along with her line of her awful it is her dad had to wait. She sounds like the type to sue if he hadn’t gone in and something had happened. You can’t please some people.

I’m not surprised staff are leaving the nhs in droves, especially paramedics. Such a complaint may well be enough to push someone over the edge to leaving. I’m sure you’ll say that’s fine and they should go.

i agree your story has changed over the course of the thread, so no doubt you’ll say that’s will lie in your complaint and totally overegg it.

I think you and your family are cross with yourselves for not standing your ground and are lashing out. Paramedics are right that it could have been a heart attack. They are duty bound to say that. They are duty bound to recommend hospital. They are duty bound to make sure a patient is aware if they ring again it could be a long wait and that wait may be too long. They will know how stretched the service is on a BH weekend and that waits will get longer as the weekend progresses. They have done their best to ensure the safety of your dad and this is the thanks they get. It’s disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourself to be honest.

thankfully paramedics tend to be believed over patients and families. Especially when there’s two of them. So the complaint will go nowhere and achieve nothing apart from wasting a lot of time and pissing off the paramedics.

Unreasonable doesn't even begin to cover this. Self centered and arrogant beyond words.

Then next time save the ambulance for someone who needs it you time wasters.

Amazing all these people out there who know more than medically trained professionals. Suppose you’d be suing the nhs if he died because they didn’t take him.

Not similar though is it.
Similar would be if you had been told by a specialist to call an ambulance if he had a shutdown. And then he had a shutdown so you called an ambulance. Then they advised but didn't force you to go to hospital. So you went but then moaned about being there. And you decided simultaneously that he was so unwell he should have been seen urgently while in hospital but also that being there was a waste of time because he knew he was fine.

Ridiculous. Presumably your father is a grown adult? And presumably you too are not a little child if you are writing this. The paramedics have to advise hospital as if there's any chance at all he's not actually ok and they just leave, you would whine that they abandoned him when he clearly needed A&E. Judging by this post, you'd even probably try and get money from them. So they have to advise it, and they rightly told you that if it did get worse there would be no guarantee that an ambulance would return in time. Or do you think they should just wait outside on the off-chance?

If he knew he was fine, he should have signed the form. I've signed the form because I'm a grown-up and am quite capable of making decisions about my own health - and because obviously if I know that I'm fine, I know I'm going to be waiting a fucking long time in A&E as there's no need for me to be there at all wasting resources. I certainly wouldn't then start bitching that the doctors didn't abandon all the actual sick people and rush to my side as soon as I crossed the threshold.

And now you want to complain. So the next time the paramedics are on the fence about whether someone needs to go in, maybe they'll go the other way and not take someone who actually does need it. Which is a much, much worse outcome than you having to wait a few hours because nobody's very interested in your perfectly healthy father when people are probably dying all around him. Just go home and stop wasting everyone's time. Christ.

Even if he was fitted with a canula, he could discharge himself anytime (as you can with any hospitalisation) but going against medical advice is pretty stupid and the doctors (or paramedics) will want to cover their backsides by getting you to something. Calling a second ambulance means that you will get triaged over the phone again and prioritise accordingly and you take your chances on when it will arrive.

Only on Mumsnet do you find someone complaining because an ambulance, that was called to their family, turned up and took fucking action.

I swear I’m so done with people, what absolute bat shittery.

No body made him do anything. If he’s so sure of his AF attacks and his own body he could have refused and signed the form. Paramedics aren’t cardiologists

similarly at A&E. Just leave! he’s not being detained

Money and Resources will now be wasted investigating this entitled complaint. Ambulance crew taking off duty and interviewed.. let’s hope nobody needs an ambulance when thar happens.

He should have refused but if his condition became worse then the best thing bearing in mind the hour wait you originally had, would have been for you to whip him into hospital surely,?

Im all for complaining and making suggestions to improve things but when you write a complaint full of lies all it means is patients in the future who are actually telling the truth are less likely to be believed. Shame on you.

I'm literally imagining the A&E staff looking over at the man and his daughter (who I imagine had a face like a slapped arse) sat fuming because THEY rang an ambulance concerned about his heart, were advised to go to A&E to get checked over, and then all was thankfully OK.

Sending a complaint about this is awful. Karma...

This is the most shitty, ungrateful thread I have ever read on Mumsnet.

How's your first week been ?

Absolutely.

I dread to think what version of the truth you’re going to put on your PALS complaint. You sound insufferable.

Number one on the things that never happened on the internet today….
if ambulances still go out to repeat callers who call often what why in the name of bull would they say this!?
As for the person previously who said make a complaint, you make me sick!!

Also OP, I imagine you are raging because you had to spend the day in A&E. Well you were free to go anytime, you didn't even need to go with him, especially if you were 100% confident he was fine.

You played yourself

You consider medical professionals making absolutely sure there are no other issues going on with your dad's heart to be "awful, awful treatment"? Wow.

The thing is, it is a Saturday on a bank holiday weekend. The paramedics are absolutely right that there might not be an ambulance available if he needs one later.

So in under an hour he's been discharged and written and submitted a complaint that was speedy did he get home in 2 minutes that was speedy

If they refused another ambulance if needed then surely you could just drive him in. Sorry but perhaps the paramedics genuinely thought from their medical knowledge that he needed to be seen by a GP. To suggest they forced him to go because some event is on in your town is quite an accusation. All he had to do was sign a form to say he was declining an A&E trip.

Exactly, especially as there was an event on in the town. Better safe than sorry as they say.

Ds had a medical episode at school yesterday which by the letter of his care plan meant he needed hospital. But I used my judgement and decided we could watch and see and that was right, if I had took him to hospital and they had confirmed he was fine I would have been thankful for them checking him not complaining about wasted time!