Blind pensioner left on pavement for 90 minutes waiting for ambulance

[claig]

We need to allocate more money for our emergency services.
We are not a poor country.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2519365/Blind-pensioner-75-left-freezing-pavement-90-MINUTES-waited-long-ambulance-police-took-hospital-patrol-car.html

Good grief, poor woman.

Sadly ambulance services have been covering up major problems for more than a decade. I was reporting them fiddling response times instead of bothering to turn up to Category 1 calls on time back in 2004. Department of Health completely uninterested, preferred to deny there was anything wrong AND appoint the chief execs whose services were guilty of the worst wrong-doing as national advisers.

Yes, it's terrible. The state spends a lot of money on contracts with Serco and G4S etc, but some spending really is of the utmost importance and is for emergencies, and ambulance, police and fire services must be sufficiently resourced to prevent tragedies occurring.

I know the area. There aren't the vehicles. Some days there can be 2000 calls just for lancashire and Cumbria. If there aren't the resources, they can't go. Of course it shouldn't happen but with such high demand it's going to happen that other people are waiting while they are dealing with the life threatening emergencies
All you have to do is look at #team999 or your local ambulance trust on twitter to see the sheer demand
The resources can't be unlimited so I think the issue needs to be why so many calls are coming in. I empathise with the person in the story, I do BUT if there isn't an ambulance what can they do?

'All you have to do is look at #team999 or your local ambulance trust on twitter to see the sheer demand'

But, goodasitgets, they have the figures, they know the demand and therefore they should get more ambulances and staff to meet that demand. That is what we all pay our taxes for and what pensioners have paid taxes for all their lives. Government should giv ethe services more money. These cuts can lead to death. They spent £4 million of taxpayer money on teh Spice Girls of Ethiopia and they haven't got enough ambulances to meet the demand and blind pensioners lie in teh street and great police give theri jackets and care homes give blankets to keep this woman warm while she lies in pain having fallen and broken some teeth.

And, she said, in typically understated English fashion

"I was a bit of a mess really. I fell at about 12.20pm, two people came to help me and the police stopped too.

‘An hour and a half later, we were still waiting for an ambulance. The police were concerned that I was very cold so they took the decision to try and get me in the police car and take me to hospital themselves, which they did.

‘They kept phoning the ambulance control, who said there were no ambulances available.’

It's not good enough.

I know what you're saying - but the whole article blames the ambulance service when people should be raging at the government!
It's not the ambulance services fault there aren't the vehicles or the staff. It's not their fault people ring for things that they could go to their GP for (if they could get an appointment)
People won't drive themselves as "they might make it worse/won't get seen as quickly"
And it just escalates and we are the ones who get shouted at

'I know what you're saying - but the whole article blames the ambulance service when people should be raging at the government!
It's not the ambulance services fault there aren't the vehicles or the staff.'

Absolutely agree with you. It's the government's fault, not ambulance staff.

It's just bad reporting that makes me mad
"The service is crap, they don't come out blah blah"
It's like at least blame the right people ! But demand is seriously increasing compared to even 5 years ago, and the amount of calls needs to seriously reduce. Even if they increase ambulances and staff, it's not infinite so at some point, someone will be waiting unless it gets drummed back that it's life threatening emergencies only

It is so frustrating that people call 999 for the most basic medical help, blocking real calls from getting through and using resources unnecessarily.

Yes they need more money but members of the public need to understand that it is a life threatening service.

I think the Daily Mail readers know who is to blame. I doubt you will find a single comment blaming the ambulance service.

The highest rated comment says

"You can ask our cost cutting government why there are so few ambulances and paramedics."

These articles are important because we all know who is to blame and unless we moan and whinge and grumble about it, things will only get worse and the government will only spend more of our money on the Spice Girls of Ethiopia while ignoring the people of Britain.

'someone will be waiting unless it gets drummed back that it's life threatening emergencies only'

'Yes they need more money but members of the public need to understand that it is a life threatening service.'

Agree with these comments. But in this case

‘They kept phoning the ambulance control, who said there were no ambulances available.’

There were no more ambulances, and this was a serious call for a blind pensioner to have broken some teeth and be lying in pain for 90 minutes on a freezing pavement.

The chief exec of the ambulance trust knows what the demand is. It's his or her JOB to employ enough ambulance crew and vehicles. Rather than leave an injured, elderly lady lying on a freezing pavement.

Yes, government cost-cutting is wrong. Yes, people shouldn't dial 999 unnecessarily - but ambulance services don't have to send an ambulance to every call, they triage. Clearly this chief exec is drawing a fat salary for doing a shit job and causing cruel lack of treatment to the vulnerable.

But we DO triage. And there still isn't enough staff and ambulances to cope. Say there's 4 ambulances in that area. One is dealing with a cardiac arrest, the other a heart attack, one is out the area, and one is off the road for whatever reason. There isn't one to attend. They stack up at hospital waiting to be able to admit a patient, the restocking/cleaning/refuelling
The paramedics don't want to leave a patient there for that long, but if there isn't the ambulance they can't magic one up!
They will try everything, is there a first responder, a rapid response car, anyone to attend?
I don't think people get the VOLUME of calls. There could be 75 calls with ambulances on them, 45 calls waiting for ambulances, and 5 calls waiting to be answered. It is stretched to the very limit

And triaging doesn't always work. I'm not saying the questions that are asked but a stubbed toe could end up as an ambulance required response. But even weeding out the stuff that doesn't need an ambulance leaves the things that might or might not, plus the things that do. Add to that hospital transfers and doctors admissions to hospital and you start to see how much demand there is

That's why I said it's the chief exec who needs to employ enough staff and ensure there are enough ambulances. They must match resource to demand. That's their JOB. They can't just wring their hands.

But it's the budget - the money in the pot needs to be there