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Original poster

Ambulance use when pregnant/labour

37 replies

mears · 03/07/2006 22:12

As a follow-on from the quick survey on A&E ambulance use, how many have used one for pregnancy related issues?

You would be surprised possibly by the number of women who use the ambulance service like a taxi. Often relatives are in the cars following the ambulance

Fair enough if labour is happening fast or if there is an emergency. However, most are not needed IMO

OP posts:

Skribble · 03/07/2006 22:13

WHen I had bleeding and was home on my own, didn't drive then,

For actual labour no DH took me as he was going anyway .

Like taxis no

NotAnOtter · 03/07/2006 22:16

once i had a bleed in pg at 24 weeks the gp called one at midnight
it made be very scared but was unneccessary!

NotAnOtter · 03/07/2006 22:16

made me!

SecurMummy · 03/07/2006 22:20

I had to use an ambulance when I was in labour with dd, but that was pre-arranged - and was the norm where I was living.

Basically, we lived in a village where the nearest labour ward was 23 miles away. As we do not have a car, I have precipitate labours, my only family lived further away than the hospital and they would not allow me to have a home birth - because the hospital was so far away (also then the only Taxi firm serving the village had a blanket ban on women in labour!)

My mother met me at the labour ward to take dd2.

(oh yes - and even if we did have a car - I was the only one who could drive and 23 miles - whilst in Labour.....Hmm!)

Out of interest, is this normal for places where there is no immediate labour ward or are you expected to do other things?

chapsmum · 03/07/2006 22:24

I used to feel very strongly about people abusing the ambulance service.
However I do thik that if someone is genuinely frightened and calls 999 it is as much the fault of the controller at the other side of the line if the are innappropirately given an emergency ambulance. The are allowed to triage and are trained for it.
If someone is scared and phones 99 they need re-assurance.
When NHS 24 was first introduced there was talk of all calls going through them. additionally it was thought that people would need a triage number given by nhs 24 before they would be seen a and e, needless to say those plans were short lived.
I dont think there is such a thing as an inapproriate use of the ambluance service for someone who is genuinelu frightened reglardless of medical urgency.

SecurMummy · 03/07/2006 22:30

Oh yes - for the record, I did not dial 999 but called the MW who called tha ambulance for me - I am not sure if it was classed an Emergency as such?

Original poster

mears · 03/07/2006 22:36

I do agree that if someone is frightened then they should call an ambulance.
There are a number of women who will say they have no transport when they call the hospital, so an ambulance is sent. Fair enough, but when car loads of relatives arrive behind the ambulance, it stretches your patience. Then there are people who will get an ambulance in then subsequently sign them selves out! They always manage to find transport then.

OP posts:

kid · 03/07/2006 22:37

I was going to drive myself to hospital when I was in labour with DD, I decided against it in the end due to lack of parking spaces, I ended up getting a lift off my sister. DS was an elective section so no need for an ambulance then either.

I passed out once at the train station and was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Katymac · 03/07/2006 22:40

I was taken to hospital whilst unconcious (sp) due to an ectopic......the first aider at work calling the ambulance, probably saved my life....just seconds before I had said it was indegestion/food poisening and DH should come and pick me up, so I could go to bed

Big THANK YOU's to the first aider & ambulance crew

edam · 03/07/2006 22:40

Mears, I have a letter from the chief executive of a major London teaching hospital TELLING me to call an ambulance when I went into labour. This was his response to my letter complaining about parking charges (sky-high with no discount or cap for pregnant women - dh driving me to hospital and actually staying with me rather than merrily driving the car back home cost us more than £50).

And when he was questioned about the response, he defended it - and London Ambulance Service agreed with him.

If you want to know which trust and which chief executive, CAT me!

edam · 03/07/2006 22:43

Oh, IIRC someone called an ambulance when I had a seizure during pregnancy. And when I was run over. Both seemed reasonable to me!

chapsmum · 03/07/2006 22:44

mears, do I sence a disgruntled mw /a and e worker in ou??

SecurMummy · 03/07/2006 22:45

So Mears - what should the procedure have been in my case then? (I am assuming the one that happened was not correct as you have not commented )

Original poster

mears · 03/07/2006 22:48

Can you tell?

There is such pressure on the ambulance service now but it seems that education of the public hasn't helped. There are posters up all over the place asking for people to be responsible. BTW, have no problems at all with the reasons posted here.

That is some response you got Edam

OP posts:

edam · 03/07/2006 22:50

Oh, and the A&E nurse at the bloody Royal Free was very shirty with me for arriving in an ambulance when I was run over. I hadn't called the damn thing, my colleagues had, and I don't think it was an outrageous thing to do - I had been hit by a damn car, I couldn't walk and I was heavily pregnant! Swine. I really hope he gets what's coming to him one day. Honestly, he treated me like muck because it turned out I hadn't broken my leg - merely torn all the effing ligaments which really HURT and took months of physio to heal. They didn't even offer me a scan to check ds was OK. And this was in the middle of the working day, not out of hours.

Bet you wish you hadn't asked, now.

SecurMummy · 03/07/2006 22:56

I don't know how educated the public is though - when I spoke to the MW she was really blaze about it as to her it was normal, but I was really uncomfortable with thte idea of calling an ambulance for labour as, to me, it is not right (although we had no choice that I could see)

I don't think I have seen any advertising or posters anywhere - even in the hospital! We have a drop in clinic just down the road but people here still seem to think that if your GP is full you go to A&E and the quickest way through triage is to go in in an ambulance (I am not sure if taht is even true is it?)

I seem to remember an advert about someone dialing 999 for something stupid and the call goes in just before a much moe serious call but as ambulance already had an occupant teh person (child?) dies at the scene. The thing is I remember it as being so long ago that I may actually have dreamed it!

beckybrastraps · 03/07/2006 22:59

My sister went in an ambulance, but her dd was nearly born in it, so I think it was justified. It was sent by the hospital after a rather panic-stricken phone call.

chapsmum · 03/07/2006 23:02

mears I have to say from one disgruntled worker to another that I found it very futile to fight abuse of the system! Simply because it is very difficult to draw the line between what is an abuse and what is is not.
Obviously some cases are clear cut, or so you would think, but if you argue, more often than not I would say that you are met with hostility rather than appology.
Additionally the work of the ambulance service is changing and over the next few years their role will be very different. with paramedics woking potentially within the fire sevice as well as the emergency service.
with hosptals with an a and e becoming few and far between, paramedical will be able to refere peopl who have inappropriately called an ambulance.

do you know that if you call an ambluance for an RTA, you may be charged, I belive it is £25??

edam · 03/07/2006 23:04

Chapsmum, I thought that was the NHS charging the insurer, rather than an individual patient?

SecurMummy · 03/07/2006 23:05

I knew about billing for an RTA - but I have never heard of it being used - is it ever?

SecurMummy · 03/07/2006 23:08

I thought it was teh individual - but Icould be wrong?

Mears - by the way _ i do think the system is horribly abused, I think that it shouldn't need advertising as most often it is common sense, however, as we know "The General Public" as a breed does not have much common sense!

So - have you had a bad day then?

chapsmum · 03/07/2006 23:08

nope, its the person who makes the call, or so it used to be... a cuclist ran into my uncle (driving a car) he phoned an ambulance and was billed

edam · 03/07/2006 23:10

I have heard of this, but a while ago - someone I knew was a biker, had an accident, and got a bill for the ambulance.

chapsmum · 03/07/2006 23:12

I am grumpy if it makes you feel any better

edam · 03/07/2006 23:14

Grumpy about being billed?

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