Nhs

I am not normally an NHS basher but was incenced yesterday at the appalling service from the ambulance service.
Was sitting on a bench waiting for the missus when i hear a loud thump.Turned around to see an elderly lady sprawled face down on the pavement. On reaching her she was attempting to right herself,with obvious mouth and face injuries with a fair amount of blood and as it happens a suspected fractured arm.A few people stopped and assisted whilst i sat behind her for support and someone called for an ambulance.
The lady who called it was on her phone for ages and finally asked me to talk to the operator after much shouting down the phone..Now obviously they want details,but she had to go through a lengthly triage over the phone and would not answer my question,have you actually arranged an ambulance.Afer a row with her i was told it could be up to an hour for an ambulance to arrive:nono::nono::nono: they were busy, F#####g what!!!.What would have happened if the woman had passed out or something!
It arrived after almost 30 minutes,just not good enough by far. Three,yes three medics then got out and ambled over, basically dismissing those who were present and trying to help.
If you are in my neck of the woods(Kingston Surrey area) and you have a heart attack or something,god help you!!!!

Sounds pretty poor. Just incase you didn't know the ambulances are administered / managed by a separate NHS trust so maybe your particular ambulance trust is underperforming but it's a bit unfair to lump the whole NHS in with it.

But I'd expect a pretty quick response for someone in distress like that not an hour wait!

Must admit the only time I've had the need to dial 999 was when my son's breathing sounded really constricted during the night when he was a baby, the paramedic pretty much turned up as soon as I'd put the phone down! It turned out to be Croup so not so serious but reassuring that they got to us so quickly.

Was in hospital all of last week with my wife after birth of our first child. The staff were amazing and couldnt speak more highly of them, every single member of staff we had contact with did eveeything they could to make the better half as comfortable as possible. where it all struggles is with organisation and volume of patients.

chub1 said:

I am not normally an NHS basher but was incenced yesterday at the appalling service from the ambulance service.
Was sitting on a bench waiting for the missus when i hear a loud thump.Turned around to see an elderly lady sprawled face down on the pavement. On reaching her she was attempting to right herself,with obvious mouth and face injuries with a fair amount of blood and as it happens a suspected fractured arm.A few people stopped and assisted whilst i sat behind her for support and someone called for an ambulance.
The lady who called it was on her phone for ages and finally asked me to talk to the operator after much shouting down the phone..Now obviously they want details,but she had to go through a lengthly triage over the phone and would not answer my question,have you actually arranged an ambulance.Afer a row with her i was told it could be up to an hour for an ambulance to arrive:nono::nono::nono: they were busy, F#####g what!!!.What would have happened if the woman had passed out or something!
It arrived after almost 30 minutes,just not good enough by far. Three,yes three medics then got out and ambled over, basically dismissing those who were present and trying to help.
If you are in my neck of the woods(Kingston Surrey area) and you have a heart attack or something,god help you!!!!

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I recommend you watch the "Ambulance" documentary series on BBC1 (it's on tonight) if you want an explanation for why ambulances take so long to arrive.

Linalmeemow said:

I recommend you watch the "Ambulance" documentary series on BBC1 (it's on tonight) if you want an explanation for why ambulances take so long to arrive.

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I cant be arsed. Short answer please?

OK - it's because the ambulance service has to prioritise calls based on risk. If it's a life threatening situation you get an ambulance straight away, unless all the ambulances are currently on a life threatening call. In this case they did the triage call, (correctly) decided it wasn't life threatening and assigned a priority level that got the ambulance there in reasonable time. I'm sure the old lady didn't think it was reasonable (and I'd tend to agree) but that's how it goes with the limited funding they have.

A few years ago I was chatting to some paramedics while we volunteered at a homeless night shelter, they noticed a guys name on the banned list and said how he regularly wanted a night in hospital and knew exactly what type of chest pains to say he had to make himself a priority ambulance call.

Linalmeemow said:

OK - it's because the ambulance service has to prioritise calls based on risk. If it's a life threatening situation you get an ambulance straight away, unless all the ambulances are currently on a life threatening call. In this case they did the triage call, (correctly) decided it wasn't life threatening and assigned a priority level that got the ambulance there in reasonable time. I'm sure the old lady didn't think it was reasonable (and I'd tend to agree) but that's how it goes with the limited funding they have.

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That is a reasonable time is it:nono:
How the feck did they know if the elderly lady wasn't going to pass out or take a turn for the worse. She obviously hit the deck b####y hard by the state of her,blood from her mouth and upper side of head. To possibly have to wait for an hour on the pavement is pathetic service. I have some first aid knowledge and don't expect a phone call lasting over 15 minutes to decide if an ambulance is worthy,and not even a paramedic available to attend.There were a lot of people offering help but also gobsmacked that no medics were available within that time space.

chub1 said:

That is a reasonable time is it:nono:
How the feck did they know if the elderly lady wasn't going to pass out or take a turn for the worse. She obviously hit the deck b####y hard by the state of her,blood from her mouth and upper side of head. To possibly have to wait for an hour on the pavement is pathetic service. I have some first aid knowledge and don't expect a phone call lasting over 15 minutes to decide if an ambulance is worthy,and not even a paramedic available to attend.There were a lot of people offering help but also gobsmacked that no medics were available within that time space.

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You'll note that I said I didn't agree it was a reasonable time, though I'm sure that as it wasn't immediately life threatening the ambo service would say it is. Until the service gets more funding (fat chance while the Tories spunk money up the wall on Trident, HS1/2 and more railways for London) you'd best get used to things as they are.

WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM THE UK NHS
it make my blood boil we pay all that money into the nhs
and get nothing back
if you need treatment urgent or to save your live we got togo to the usa and pay for it
but only if the law courts say you can go

Unfortunately there is a grading system. Next time ssy you think she is having an heart attack

Leon103 said:

Unfortunately there is a grading system. Next time ssy you think she is having an heart attack

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And put her ahead of an actual heart attack victim in the queue?

Linalmeemow said:

And put her ahead of an actual heart attack victim in the queue?

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Why would you want to do that?

Leon103 said:

Why would you want to do that?

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You wouldn't. I was posing it as a question.

A 30 minute response time for a fall with lacerations doesn't sound too bad to me. Distressing of course and I absolutely agree, not what you'd want; but as other posters have said, the NHS is at crisis point and just can't meet expectations. The lady was very lucky to have you there to look after her.

Last weekend a friend of mine was dying of pancreatitis, total systemic failure, and the ambulance took over an hour to respond. Treatment after they got here was amazing and he owes them his life. But 60 minutes response time, in a city...

The main problem with the NHS is that there will never be enough money to treat everyone for everything. Drugs, experimental therapies, surgery... are eye-wateringly expensive. Health trusts find themselves weighing up whether to fund 2 rounds of IVF treatment or 3 heart bypasses. They can't pay for everything. The political parties need to speak honestly and frankly about what we as a nation want from the NHS and how much that will cost us.

My opinion from working on the fringes of the NHS is that the privatisation of health care will speed up as departments continue to fail to meet expectations due to underfunding. It will be the easy, profitable ones first: sexual health, general practice, mental health care. Maybe in time ambulances will have faster response times - if we have the health insurance to pay for them.

Linalmeemow said:

You wouldn't. I was posing it as a question.

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Ah right. No that wouldn't be possible

The fact is that what has been described appears to be on life threatening and for all you know, there might have been a major incident somewhere requiring life saving medical assistance.
Of course, our services would be better if we didn't have a quarter of a million illegal immigrants coming in every year...

simon12 said:

A few years ago I was chatting to some paramedics while we volunteered at a homeless night shelter, they noticed a guys name on the banned list and said how he regularly wanted a night in hospital and knew exactly what type of chest pains to say he had to make himself a priority ambulance call.

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I think the staff call this "The Big White Taxi Service".

Ken L said:

The fact is that what has been described appears to be on life threatening and for all you know, there might have been a major incident somewhere requiring life saving medical assistance.
Of course, our services would be better if we didn't have a quarter of a million illegal immigrants coming in every year...

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Got a source for that quarter of a million illegal immigrants figure?


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It's a bad situation but as others have said the ambulance service is badly underfunded as indeed is the whole NHS. Victim of it own success in many ways, our aging population is a wonderful thing but does put more demand on services


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