I was out cycling with my brother last year, when he went straight over the handlebars at around 25mph after hitting a pot hole he didn’t see.
He was bleeding badly pretty much everywhere. From his hands, both elbows,, both knees, both shoulders. Helmet was split from landing headfirst (Saving him a very serious injury).
He was in agony, and couldn’t get up. I called an ambulance, and they said they were sending one and to wait. 2 hours passed hy and nothing. I called them again, and they couldn’t give me any info on how long they were going to be. Eventually he just allowed me and some passers by to come and help pick him up, and one of them took him to A&E lay across the backseat.
I could not believe that they knew the extent of his situation and they were not able to get medical assistance to him quickly.
I know covid is/was a factor, but I think its fairly obvious that we need to employ more ambulance staff somehow, someway.
If Rushi Sunak’s wife pay some taxes government can spend them for few ambulances
I waited about 4 1/2 hours last November after (during?) having a heart attack after I rang 999.
I then did 4 hours in the hospital car park in the ambulance waiting for an A&E “place” to open up so I could be admitted and assessed. I then spent nearly 4 days on a gurney in a disused office waiting for a place on the acute cardiac ward.
I have nothing but admiration for all the staff I came across who were forced to work in horrendous conditions, but in terms of providing timely emergency health care I will argue with any one that the NHS has been stretched by this government beyond the point of failure.
88yr old nan woke up in agony with a potentially fatal bowel obstruction last week. Operator said it’d be 11 hours before an ambulance would be available, and even that was a maybe.
The British public basically don’t have any emergency health care any more.
I had an asthma attack a few weeks ago that my inhaler wasn’t helping with. I called up and an ambulance should arrive in the hour supposedly. After an hour and a half I get a call asking me if I can make my own way to the hospital as they wouldn’t be able to reach me for atleast another couple of hours.
My mum spoke to them and said it wasn’t really possible whilst I was having an asthma attack to walk up the steep steps from my house and down the road to the car. They were really pushing for me to make my own way but we said we’d wait. After 3 hours they still hadn’t come and they still had 2 people ahead of me, so we cancelled it and tries to stabilise myself at home until I could see my doctor in the morning.
Edit: please stop downvoting me for me following the literal NHS guidance of calling 999 if my asthma attack doesn’t improve after 10 puffs on my inhaler. It’s in asthmatics action plans to follow this. When you don’t call 999 you still have to make an urgent same day appointment with your asthma nurse/GP, which I did.
Sometimes YouTube and online searches are being used instead of calling for ambulance
As a police officer we often attend calls in place of an ambulance or whilst waiting for an ambulance to arrive. This is one of the (many) reasons why police are so stretched and that the general public don’t see or understand.
Our paramedic colleagues are superb and I have got all the time in the world for them, they do a fantastic job.
Unfortunately, it ultimately comes down to two things
1) people calling the ambulance for things which they shouldn’t be calling an ambulance for. The key word is ’emergency’. They just make the queue longer and longer.
2) space in A&E and wards. There are no beds / no space, so ambulances have to wait with patients inside.
It was 15 hours near me a few weeks back. The pressure on hospitals is insane and we have staff quitting in droves, only exacerbating the problems. The NHS is held together by its staff, who often work ridiculous hours for poor pay (relative to the expertise and training required), while being blamed for a poor service created through chronic underinvestment by the government. The only thing that will save the NHS is investment like we have never seen before, yet the government instead managed to give away billions to PPE companies with no due diligence and failed again to tax the wealthiest in society. The NHS will always be here but it is now set up to fail, allowing privatisation to slowly creep in to create a two-tier health system.
Using an alt, but I work as a 999 call handler for the ambulance service so have a bit of insight.
1) Delays at hospitals. Ambulances spend most of their shift at hospital waiting to hand one or two patients over. That can take around 5-6 hours some days. It’s not the hospitals fault, but they only have so many beds and no where to put new patients.
2) An abundance of people phoning for trivial compliants. Sometimes we take 3+ minutes to answer calls, and we’re tied up speaking to somebody who’s phoning because they fractured an ankle, or have had D&V. Adding on to this, people can’t access their GP’s, so come to use for problems that can and should be treated at home.
3) Inadequate mental health services in the UK. There have been so many cuts across the services, MH services can’t help enough people now. It’s not understating to say around 1/4 of our calls are Mental health or overdose calls, and a good chunk of those are actually regular callers who phone us, say they’re going to kill themselves and hang up. If we can’t remake contact, we’re duty bound to send an ambulance and do a welfare check only to be told when we arrive we should fuck off.
4) We can’t and don’t say ‘No’ to enough callers. We’re probably the most risk adverse service, and will send an ambulance to somebody rather than signpost them to other services or say ‘No’. We tell somebody we’re not coming, they phone back 30 seconds later saying ‘Ive got chest pains’ and we have to see them. The public can be bastards.
I can only write so much, but I’ve worked shifts where I’ve seen people fallen left on the floor 12+ hours, and people having strokes waiting 5+ hours. We’re crippled.
Had to have an ambulance out Wednesday night for severe anxiety and flashbacks, so fucking glad I live round the corner from an ambulance depot, but I’ve also had to wait ages for an ambulance in the past(I hurt myself alot by accident)
The paramedics were great, and also very honest about how limited they are atm.
England = A Failed State
All the hallmarks are there.
Honestly the NHS is such a mess right now.. for all the praise it gets it’s awfully mismanaged and understaffed. Obviously government funding is too low, but also NHS spending is too wasteful.
If you have anything that needs examined with scans or referrals then it takes months.
Last week a school boy from the school I work at fainted after school in the middle of town. Didn’t even hit his head. Known epileptic. He was fine after 10 minutes and his mum picked him up. 2 ambulances and an emergency response vehicle turned up. 3 ambulances basically. In less than 5 minutes. Hysterical good samaritans obviously caused it. If I had been there 5 minutes earlier I would have been able to tell everyone to calm the fuck down and sort him out myself. Yet a fallen 90 year old home alone can wait for 7 hours. I just don’t get it.
The issues relating to ambulance waiting times are so complexed and nuanced it’s almost impossible to unpick them entirely. But there’s quite a few things that contribute.
1. Hospitals that can’t cope, and ambulances waiting to drop of patients.
2. A triage system that is so risk adverse it ultimately causes patient safety issues because it’s so keen to make sure everyone is seen by ambulances. (111)
3. Abuse of the service by people who want their telly turning off and ring up to say they have breathing problems (yes this does happen).
4. The NHS being used to prop up failings in private hospitals and nursing homes.
5. Staff that have just been beaten into the ground and the attempts of trusts to try and manage their welfare. Ambulance staff do need time off work too.
6. People who could absolutely make their own way, but would rather call an ambulance because they think they’ll get seen in A&E quicker arriving by ambulance (you won’t by the way).
7. People being taken to hospital because there simply isn’t a care support network that’s quickly reactive enough.
8. People who call because they want “a check up”
9. Families who call because they don’t want to look after a relative anymore, or they’ve had an argument with someone and think they’re being irrational so “they need to be sectioned”.
10. Mental health, and the lack of help and support for it.
Looks like a lot of our vulnerable and elderly will be left to starve or freeze come Christmas so this situation with NHS will resolve itself and then our betters from London can get back to asset stripping it. Vote Tory!
I feel for all those waiting especially the ones that didn’t vote Tory
What other alternative is there? Tax rich people? Of course not. Get by with only 1 aircraft carrier? Unthinkable? Actually make people actually wear actual masks during a pandemic? Impossible.
i work for the ambulance service and i can definitely say that they are overwhelmed. With time wasters and the increase in mental health problems and lack of social care, the ambulance service is inundated. I hope your brother is okay!
18 comments
I was out cycling with my brother last year, when he went straight over the handlebars at around 25mph after hitting a pot hole he didn’t see.
He was bleeding badly pretty much everywhere. From his hands, both elbows,, both knees, both shoulders. Helmet was split from landing headfirst (Saving him a very serious injury).
He was in agony, and couldn’t get up. I called an ambulance, and they said they were sending one and to wait. 2 hours passed hy and nothing. I called them again, and they couldn’t give me any info on how long they were going to be. Eventually he just allowed me and some passers by to come and help pick him up, and one of them took him to A&E lay across the backseat.
I could not believe that they knew the extent of his situation and they were not able to get medical assistance to him quickly.
I know covid is/was a factor, but I think its fairly obvious that we need to employ more ambulance staff somehow, someway.
If Rushi Sunak’s wife pay some taxes government can spend them for few ambulances
I waited about 4 1/2 hours last November after (during?) having a heart attack after I rang 999.
I then did 4 hours in the hospital car park in the ambulance waiting for an A&E “place” to open up so I could be admitted and assessed. I then spent nearly 4 days on a gurney in a disused office waiting for a place on the acute cardiac ward.
I have nothing but admiration for all the staff I came across who were forced to work in horrendous conditions, but in terms of providing timely emergency health care I will argue with any one that the NHS has been stretched by this government beyond the point of failure.
88yr old nan woke up in agony with a potentially fatal bowel obstruction last week. Operator said it’d be 11 hours before an ambulance would be available, and even that was a maybe.
The British public basically don’t have any emergency health care any more.
I had an asthma attack a few weeks ago that my inhaler wasn’t helping with. I called up and an ambulance should arrive in the hour supposedly. After an hour and a half I get a call asking me if I can make my own way to the hospital as they wouldn’t be able to reach me for atleast another couple of hours.
My mum spoke to them and said it wasn’t really possible whilst I was having an asthma attack to walk up the steep steps from my house and down the road to the car. They were really pushing for me to make my own way but we said we’d wait. After 3 hours they still hadn’t come and they still had 2 people ahead of me, so we cancelled it and tries to stabilise myself at home until I could see my doctor in the morning.
Edit: please stop downvoting me for me following the literal NHS guidance of calling 999 if my asthma attack doesn’t improve after 10 puffs on my inhaler. It’s in asthmatics action plans to follow this. When you don’t call 999 you still have to make an urgent same day appointment with your asthma nurse/GP, which I did.
Sometimes YouTube and online searches are being used instead of calling for ambulance
As a police officer we often attend calls in place of an ambulance or whilst waiting for an ambulance to arrive. This is one of the (many) reasons why police are so stretched and that the general public don’t see or understand.
Our paramedic colleagues are superb and I have got all the time in the world for them, they do a fantastic job.
Unfortunately, it ultimately comes down to two things
1) people calling the ambulance for things which they shouldn’t be calling an ambulance for. The key word is ’emergency’. They just make the queue longer and longer.
2) space in A&E and wards. There are no beds / no space, so ambulances have to wait with patients inside.
It was 15 hours near me a few weeks back. The pressure on hospitals is insane and we have staff quitting in droves, only exacerbating the problems. The NHS is held together by its staff, who often work ridiculous hours for poor pay (relative to the expertise and training required), while being blamed for a poor service created through chronic underinvestment by the government. The only thing that will save the NHS is investment like we have never seen before, yet the government instead managed to give away billions to PPE companies with no due diligence and failed again to tax the wealthiest in society. The NHS will always be here but it is now set up to fail, allowing privatisation to slowly creep in to create a two-tier health system.
Using an alt, but I work as a 999 call handler for the ambulance service so have a bit of insight.
1) Delays at hospitals. Ambulances spend most of their shift at hospital waiting to hand one or two patients over. That can take around 5-6 hours some days. It’s not the hospitals fault, but they only have so many beds and no where to put new patients.
2) An abundance of people phoning for trivial compliants. Sometimes we take 3+ minutes to answer calls, and we’re tied up speaking to somebody who’s phoning because they fractured an ankle, or have had D&V. Adding on to this, people can’t access their GP’s, so come to use for problems that can and should be treated at home.
3) Inadequate mental health services in the UK. There have been so many cuts across the services, MH services can’t help enough people now. It’s not understating to say around 1/4 of our calls are Mental health or overdose calls, and a good chunk of those are actually regular callers who phone us, say they’re going to kill themselves and hang up. If we can’t remake contact, we’re duty bound to send an ambulance and do a welfare check only to be told when we arrive we should fuck off.
4) We can’t and don’t say ‘No’ to enough callers. We’re probably the most risk adverse service, and will send an ambulance to somebody rather than signpost them to other services or say ‘No’. We tell somebody we’re not coming, they phone back 30 seconds later saying ‘Ive got chest pains’ and we have to see them. The public can be bastards.
I can only write so much, but I’ve worked shifts where I’ve seen people fallen left on the floor 12+ hours, and people having strokes waiting 5+ hours. We’re crippled.
Had to have an ambulance out Wednesday night for severe anxiety and flashbacks, so fucking glad I live round the corner from an ambulance depot, but I’ve also had to wait ages for an ambulance in the past(I hurt myself alot by accident)
The paramedics were great, and also very honest about how limited they are atm.
England = A Failed State
All the hallmarks are there.
Honestly the NHS is such a mess right now.. for all the praise it gets it’s awfully mismanaged and understaffed. Obviously government funding is too low, but also NHS spending is too wasteful.
If you have anything that needs examined with scans or referrals then it takes months.
Last week a school boy from the school I work at fainted after school in the middle of town. Didn’t even hit his head. Known epileptic. He was fine after 10 minutes and his mum picked him up. 2 ambulances and an emergency response vehicle turned up. 3 ambulances basically. In less than 5 minutes. Hysterical good samaritans obviously caused it. If I had been there 5 minutes earlier I would have been able to tell everyone to calm the fuck down and sort him out myself. Yet a fallen 90 year old home alone can wait for 7 hours. I just don’t get it.
The issues relating to ambulance waiting times are so complexed and nuanced it’s almost impossible to unpick them entirely. But there’s quite a few things that contribute.
1. Hospitals that can’t cope, and ambulances waiting to drop of patients.
2. A triage system that is so risk adverse it ultimately causes patient safety issues because it’s so keen to make sure everyone is seen by ambulances. (111)
3. Abuse of the service by people who want their telly turning off and ring up to say they have breathing problems (yes this does happen).
4. The NHS being used to prop up failings in private hospitals and nursing homes.
5. Staff that have just been beaten into the ground and the attempts of trusts to try and manage their welfare. Ambulance staff do need time off work too.
6. People who could absolutely make their own way, but would rather call an ambulance because they think they’ll get seen in A&E quicker arriving by ambulance (you won’t by the way).
7. People being taken to hospital because there simply isn’t a care support network that’s quickly reactive enough.
8. People who call because they want “a check up”
9. Families who call because they don’t want to look after a relative anymore, or they’ve had an argument with someone and think they’re being irrational so “they need to be sectioned”.
10. Mental health, and the lack of help and support for it.
Looks like a lot of our vulnerable and elderly will be left to starve or freeze come Christmas so this situation with NHS will resolve itself and then our betters from London can get back to asset stripping it. Vote Tory!
I feel for all those waiting especially the ones that didn’t vote Tory
What other alternative is there? Tax rich people? Of course not. Get by with only 1 aircraft carrier? Unthinkable? Actually make people actually wear actual masks during a pandemic? Impossible.
i work for the ambulance service and i can definitely say that they are overwhelmed. With time wasters and the increase in mental health problems and lack of social care, the ambulance service is inundated. I hope your brother is okay!