I mean to be fair that’s what people should be doing anyway, if they’re able to. Right?
Ambulances are not taxi services. So often crew will turn up to multi car households with multiple adults gathered around the patient. In those situations you absolutely should be putting the patient in the back with another person and driving then yourselves. Obviously it isn’t always possible but people don’t even try to make it work and that’s why we have such long wait times. If you’re going to be waiting for hours in A+E anyway why not cut out the wait for the ambulance and get going?
There probably needs to be an education campaign on this issue.
Sometimes bundling the patient into the back of a car and driving them to A&E is absolutely the right thing to do and will save vital minutes. Other times moving the patient could make things much worse.
I have no medical training so I have no idea which situation applies when.
I’m sorry about all the blood in your taxi mate. It’ll wash out with cold water as long as you don’t leave it. Here’s an extra quid.
A lot of 999 calls are panic.
I called for an ambulance after more or less cutting my thumb down to the bone with a electric saw.
It was a non thought process when I saw the amount of blood.
Once they came wrapped it and I had got over the shock I refused to ride to hospital and my Mrs was able to drive me.
Did I have to call them at all? Could I have wrapped it myself and waited for the wife to drive me? Yeah I think I could have.
I called 111 once with breathing issues, and the first response was to get me an ambulance even though I said I could get somebody to take me. Ended up managing to cancel it and made me way to a and e. 6 hours later I was seen by someone and by that time whatever had affected my breathing had resolved itself.
If you have a non-life threatening ambulance use then you should be charged 50 quid stupidity fee. Problem solved.
The point is we have cut ambulance services so much – people who need an ambulance are having to resort to cars and taxis.
Yeah cus A&E is full of doctors and spare beds, this approach will definitely solve the issue
This is a common theme, we go to so many calls which are absolutely able to manage themselves.
ambulance took 3.5hrs to arrive,
I said are you busy tonight,
they said I’m the first call out tonight,
we have been parked just down the road,
waiting for a call,we only just been told to pick you up,my heart was beating irregularly,it was affecting my breathing,
by the time they arrived,it was beating normally,they took me in,to be told there’s nothing up with you🙄
Many people use ambulances like a taxi service. I’ve lost count of how many people have called 999 for chronic pain, flu, broken toes and facial injuries that do not require an ambulance. And I’m sick of hearing from entitled individuals ‘I arrived in an ambulance, I’ll go home in one’. Boils my blood.
Remember to avoid the congestion charging zones as you drive yourself to hospital, or you could take your bike for a nice bracing experience cycling in -7 degrees.
Probably overrun with the blue rinse brigade falling on the ice and breaking something, and they could be chucked in a taxi to hospital.
My father in law had to walk it to A&E due to chest pain. They found out he had a heart attack and is in ICU now.
When my son who has Down Syndrome caught covid I rang 111 for advice because my GP surgery wasn’t interested, he was very unwell but in my opinion not needing emergency care, the call handler said he should go into hospital and she was sending an ambulance, I said that I wasn’t positive for covid and could drive him, she insisted that we should travel by ambulance, ambulance turned up, the paramedics weren’t fazed in the slightest and happily took us in. My son had anti virals, fluids, anti emetics and was discharged the next day, he made a full recovery in a couple of weeks. The point is it wasn’t my choice to travel by ambulance, the call handler insisted. What can you do in that situation?
what’s new? this has been a thing for over a decade now, I still vividly remember a housemate spilling a good 3 litres of boiling water on his foot, he had a blister the size of a bulls heart and they said “can you get a bus?” it’s only when I spouted some medical jargon about burns (to indicate I’m not some random idiot who’s just freaking out over a paper cut) and how his loss of foot would be their responsibility they got an ambulance round in about 10 minutes…..
This doesn’t surprise me. Years ago now, I needed an ambulance as I collapsed in public and it took 2 and a half hours to get one to me. I know it varies all over the country but services have been strained for a long time
For them to then sit in the ED where assitance could still be hours away. It is always better to be in the ED than not in such cases, just in case things go south very quickly, however it will still not be reassuring to arrive at hospital and realise that help could still be hours away. Paramedics are just one part of the hospital chain but it is broken throughout anyway. It is why the service is perilously close to collapse.
This isn’t exactly news, or new. Hell we’ve spent decades begging people to stop going to A&E for non-emergency issues…
20 comments
I mean to be fair that’s what people should be doing anyway, if they’re able to. Right?
Ambulances are not taxi services. So often crew will turn up to multi car households with multiple adults gathered around the patient. In those situations you absolutely should be putting the patient in the back with another person and driving then yourselves. Obviously it isn’t always possible but people don’t even try to make it work and that’s why we have such long wait times. If you’re going to be waiting for hours in A+E anyway why not cut out the wait for the ambulance and get going?
There probably needs to be an education campaign on this issue.
Sometimes bundling the patient into the back of a car and driving them to A&E is absolutely the right thing to do and will save vital minutes. Other times moving the patient could make things much worse.
I have no medical training so I have no idea which situation applies when.
I’m sorry about all the blood in your taxi mate. It’ll wash out with cold water as long as you don’t leave it. Here’s an extra quid.
A lot of 999 calls are panic.
I called for an ambulance after more or less cutting my thumb down to the bone with a electric saw.
It was a non thought process when I saw the amount of blood.
Once they came wrapped it and I had got over the shock I refused to ride to hospital and my Mrs was able to drive me.
Did I have to call them at all? Could I have wrapped it myself and waited for the wife to drive me? Yeah I think I could have.
I called 111 once with breathing issues, and the first response was to get me an ambulance even though I said I could get somebody to take me. Ended up managing to cancel it and made me way to a and e. 6 hours later I was seen by someone and by that time whatever had affected my breathing had resolved itself.
If you have a non-life threatening ambulance use then you should be charged 50 quid stupidity fee. Problem solved.
The point is we have cut ambulance services so much – people who need an ambulance are having to resort to cars and taxis.
Yeah cus A&E is full of doctors and spare beds, this approach will definitely solve the issue
This is a common theme, we go to so many calls which are absolutely able to manage themselves.
ambulance took 3.5hrs to arrive,
I said are you busy tonight,
they said I’m the first call out tonight,
we have been parked just down the road,
waiting for a call,we only just been told to pick you up,my heart was beating irregularly,it was affecting my breathing,
by the time they arrived,it was beating normally,they took me in,to be told there’s nothing up with you🙄
Many people use ambulances like a taxi service. I’ve lost count of how many people have called 999 for chronic pain, flu, broken toes and facial injuries that do not require an ambulance. And I’m sick of hearing from entitled individuals ‘I arrived in an ambulance, I’ll go home in one’. Boils my blood.
Remember to avoid the congestion charging zones as you drive yourself to hospital, or you could take your bike for a nice bracing experience cycling in -7 degrees.
Probably overrun with the blue rinse brigade falling on the ice and breaking something, and they could be chucked in a taxi to hospital.
My father in law had to walk it to A&E due to chest pain. They found out he had a heart attack and is in ICU now.
When my son who has Down Syndrome caught covid I rang 111 for advice because my GP surgery wasn’t interested, he was very unwell but in my opinion not needing emergency care, the call handler said he should go into hospital and she was sending an ambulance, I said that I wasn’t positive for covid and could drive him, she insisted that we should travel by ambulance, ambulance turned up, the paramedics weren’t fazed in the slightest and happily took us in. My son had anti virals, fluids, anti emetics and was discharged the next day, he made a full recovery in a couple of weeks. The point is it wasn’t my choice to travel by ambulance, the call handler insisted. What can you do in that situation?
what’s new? this has been a thing for over a decade now, I still vividly remember a housemate spilling a good 3 litres of boiling water on his foot, he had a blister the size of a bulls heart and they said “can you get a bus?” it’s only when I spouted some medical jargon about burns (to indicate I’m not some random idiot who’s just freaking out over a paper cut) and how his loss of foot would be their responsibility they got an ambulance round in about 10 minutes…..
This doesn’t surprise me. Years ago now, I needed an ambulance as I collapsed in public and it took 2 and a half hours to get one to me. I know it varies all over the country but services have been strained for a long time
For them to then sit in the ED where assitance could still be hours away. It is always better to be in the ED than not in such cases, just in case things go south very quickly, however it will still not be reassuring to arrive at hospital and realise that help could still be hours away. Paramedics are just one part of the hospital chain but it is broken throughout anyway. It is why the service is perilously close to collapse.
This isn’t exactly news, or new. Hell we’ve spent decades begging people to stop going to A&E for non-emergency issues…