Complaint to Ambulance or...

[user1482875653]

I had to phone for an ambulance for my next door neighbor due to her falling.

Waited over an hour; she was bleeding, semi-conscious and generally needing medical attention

The 999 Operator said to me you sound medical trained cos I used a couple of words and took her BP and HR and said okay bye the ambulance is on the way

You can't reasonably expect them to stay on the line until the ambulance arrives. They will if they're giving instructions on cpr etc but to expect someone to stay on the line is ridiculous. What's going to happen to the other calls coming in during that period?

A lot of 111 calls get triaged to the GP once they arrive. It's a standing joke with the paramedics when they hand over a patient who looks absolutely fine, we always ask if it's 111, it usually is

please don't complain. The Ambulance service is haemorrhaging staff at present. The stress on the rest to try and do their job is sometime unbearable.

The operator has to prioritise calls. Unconscious patients, those with breathing and heart difficulties must take priority. Someone who has a calm person with them, who has been described to them by somebody calm and sensible will not die before someone with the above symptoms.

My son, several of his friends and my DiL, before she left, all spend many Christmas Days, away from their young families many ambulances and call centres. They may wish to send a an ambulance to a particular case, but have absolute strict protocols to follow.

Manning not many

Did she survive?

I'm not entirely sure what a complaint would achieve tbh. I recently had to call an ambulance because I couldn't breathe, and even then it took nearly an hour to arrive, but I had been pre-warned. But by the time it did I was collapsed on the floor and I do remember thinking that if the ambulance didn't come soon I might not actually survive to tell the tale. I very nearly didn't, but that's not the fault of the paramedics, in fact if it weren't for them and subsequent hospital staff I would have died. So while the wait was unfortunate, I am stil grateful we have the service in the first place.

Why would they stay on the line? They don't normally, they didn't have to talk you through CPR or delivering a baby. My son tripped and knocked himself unconscious and they didn't stay on the line. Sadly an hour for a trip and fall is about normal, the person though in pain, isn't dying. Life and death situations take priority.

What is your complaint? It's the norm for us to wait hours (sometimes 10+) for ambulances to transport critically ill patients and those are ones who have been assessed by medical staff as needing admission to hospital.

You are better complaining to your MP that the NHS is under funded.

Complain & cc your MP & councillors in a FYI type way.

You can say in your complaint you recognise that the ambulance service did their best but you are complaining to highlight that the system is close to collapse.

I agree we should all take these things to our MPs, because that is where responsibility lies, fair and square. I'm horrified that services have all been cut to the bone and beyond to the extent that people are being put in serious danger every day, and May is just talking about further cuts. Someone on here was commenting recently that Social Services cannot physically do their jobs in terms of child protection duties, and we are all regularly seeing evidence of the fact that services for things like mental health and disability are totally inadequate. It needs to be brought home to this government that cuts never equate to efficiency savings, rather the reverse.

Actually yes, complain to your MP & cc the ambulance trust & councillors. Do it that way round.

All NHS services are in the same boat, being drained of resources and having to watch their standards fall. Complaining is part of raising awareness, sometimes people can view complaints as a negative thing but actually sometimes they are necessary. We used to have good ambulance response times in most of the UK, the Government have decided they don't give a shit if you now wait an hour. The public needs to shout at the tops of their voices about this (and the constant closing of hospital services).
Keeping quiet so that we don't upset anyone isn't really going to help.