75 minute wait for an ambulance
 

Was coming out of M&S last night when a young girl who was with her Mum collapsed onto the floor in front of us. As she went down she screamed in pain. She was in so much pain she wasn't really communicating with us what was wrong but her Mum told me she'd broken her back in 2 places last year.

I rang for an ambulance on 999 and explained clearly that she had a history with her back and that I would keep her still and not move her until the ambulance crew arrived. Was told the ambulance would be with us in minutes. Told Mrs Chip to bring our car over and park in road to stop other cars as it was dark and we were on a bend in the road.

As it was nearly freezing some M&S staff brought some coats out to keep her warm and their first aider came out as well.

After 20 mins M&S rang to see where the ambulance was and again were told it was en route and would be a few mins.

The girl by now had calmed down a little and we realised she had dislocated her knee but still we kept her still in case of any back problems as she had fallen awkwardly.

After 2 more calls the ambulance eventually arrived 75 minutes after we had called for it. Girl who was 17 was checked over by paramedics (who were excellent) and taken off to hospital.

M&S staff were great bringing us coffee and a jacket for me to wear as I only had a tee shirt on and was bloody freezing.

The girls Mum rang us today to thank us for helping and to tell us she'll be alright though she was really worried that it was at first a lot more serious than it was

Just want to say I think it is disgusting that she had to wait all this time for the ambulance. God help anyone who phones an ambulance for a real emergency these days.

Chip

Did the girls' mum say why the ambulance was so late?

Paramedics just said they were very busy and there were not enough ambulances or staff to cover the calls.

The first aider from M&S said his wife worked for the NHS as a district nurse and it was a shambles the way it it run now.

Chip

Good man Chip (& Mrs Chip!), many would've not bothered even stopping.......... :thumb:

If it had been a Pole injured in a fight they would have been there in minutes.

Well done chip for what you did.

Yep, I agree, well done chip, not many nowadays that would even blink an eyelid. Everybody too wrapped up in thier own little world. :mad:

75 mins is also a disgusting amount of time to wait for an ambulance. :mad: :mad:


Andy

On the flip side to that, I was having severe problems with my asthma one night a few months ago and called NHS Direct. They said that they thought it was best for a paramedic to come out - which came as a shock as I was expecting an out of hours doctor.

The paramedic arrived within about 3 minutes :eek: I'd only just finished getting out of my jim jams (not a pretty sight!) and into some clothes.

Maybe I was lucky - but I agree, if I'd had to wait 75 minutes I would have been less than impressed.

if you mention the person is a foreigner they'd be there in 5 mins. because she's english you are stuck to back of queue :norty:

Well done Chip! :thumb:

Had something similar happen to my family.

My grandad was having severe chest pains and his wife called for an ambulance. He suffered from angina and had a heart attack years before. Anyway, she called my dad and he rushed round to their house. Surprisingly, there was no ambulance. My dad got straight onto the phone and asked what was going on, and did they know that my grandad was possibly having a heart attack. And the stoopid moo on the other end said "Really? I will see what we can do".

45 blinking minutes later an ambulance turned up. It had to come all the way from Hemel Hempstead to Welwyn Garden City. Give them their dues, the paramedics were terrific but sadly my grandad died 2 days later from 2 severe heart attacks and then heart failure. :(

Why?

There is something called neighborhood first responders, it was probably one of them.

http://www.sja.org.uk/volunteering/c...FR-involve.asp

During my grandad's recent spell of ill health, the paramedics and ambulance services have been faultless, responding when needed in a very short period of time :thumb: .

The hospital staff that cared for him however, are another story :mad:

It was actually a paramedic - he arrived in a 4x4 sort of thing, and an ambulance followed when they decided I needed to go into hospital. That said, I was nebulised (for non asthma sufferers, a sort of vapouriser that allows you to breathe medicine to settle the attack) and at hospital within 75 minutes. On a Saturday night too (casualty was interesting to say the least :eek:)

So they lied when the M&S staff phoned them up after 20mins.

YES!

I can't help thinking if the ambulance arrived 5minutes sooner, my dad would still be alive. C'est la Vie :(

Originally Posted by myblackwrx
So they lied when the M&S staff phoned them up after 20mins.

posted by Chip
YES!

Sorry that was a bloody obvious thing for me to say.I really think you or the mum should complain about them lying (i presume they record emergency calls) w@nkers

Well done Mr and Mrs Chip, good to see that there are still people who care these days.

Sounds like there just were not enough ambulance staff to cover at that time. Due to cutbacks I suppose. Not very impressive is it?

Les

That's not good to hear. should have been there quicker and they shouldn't have told you it would be there in a few minutes when they must surely have known it would be somewhat longer!

A somewhat quicker response.....was in a mates club on Sat night and a guy got headbutted and then knocked his head on a pillar and then on the floor as he went down. Massive head wound(s) and big pool of blood. Police were there within 2 or 3 minutes and ambulance in 5 minutes. Quite good for a busy Sat night at this time of year i thought :thumb: Lots of people around weren't slow in letting security know who'd done it so he was detiained for the police too :)

It is obvious why it took so long to arrive! you are in Wales! the driver didn't want to get done for speading :D

Again well done BTW!

Good on you Chip (& Mrs Chip) :thumb:

Looks like our town's (pop. 81,000) A&E is going to be closed next year. The closest one will now be over 10 miles away. :(

As usual at this time of year they are probably swamped with calls from pissheads who've fallen over.

Chip, the ambulance service & NHS in Wales is in total disaray. The ambulance service has had at least 3 chief executives this year, they have bought ambulances that are not suitable for the job in question & have had to be modified, all at tax payers expense. I've heard stories of the Police using their own vehicles to take caualties to hospital as the officers felt they couldn't risk waiting any longer for the ambulance ti turn up.

Whilst a dislocated knee is very painful, fortunatley it wasn't more serious & life threatening. Well done for waht you did.

Police actually attending before an ambulance? It must be bad....

as said well done to you and the m&s staff and glad not as bad as first thought, think perhps legal action then donate the money to the ambulance service should be enough to pay for an ambulance for a few months ;)

I have.

Chip

Got to agree with Huw, from what I hear the Welsh ambulance service sucks. It's due to many problems, not least the lack of vehicles to cover large rural areas, broken or inadequate vehicles and numptys who don't need an ambulance phoning up because they have a cold or have stubbed their toe.

http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/Docum...6/Jan-2006.pdf This is a performance report for Welsh Ambulance covering 2005/2006. It explains where their shortfalls are and how they intend to fix it.

Calls are categorised so that, in theory, the most needy get the ambulances first. This doesn't always work as people know how to play the system and answer the call takers questions to their advantage. No matter how much pain someone with a dislocated knee is in, it's regarded as a catagory C call (non life threatening) which means, in our service anyway, that we won't respond with lights and sirens and we will try and get there within the hour, other higher grade emergencies permitting.

Unfortunately, the "male collapse", "female unconscious", "female difficulty breathing" calls get a higher grading and usually turn out to be alcohol related.

And our controllers aren't supposed to give a vehicle ETA because the allocated vehicle might get diverted to another job on the way so if they did give someone a time it was a bit naughty.

TB
At the time of calling the ambulance I did not know she had dislocated her knee.All I knew was that she had collapsed in great pain and had only months before broken her back in 2 places after a fall.

This was explained to the operator who took the call. In hindsight I probably wasnt told the ambulance was minutes away. I was told it had been dispatched and was en-route. As UHW was 2 miles away and the main ambulance station 3 miles away I probably wrongly assumed it would be minutes away.

As it was it took 75 minutes, so either it came from outside of our area or someone was being economical with the truth that it had been dispatched.

Chip