How long would you expect to wait for a ambulance after ringing 999

[Timeh]

One thing seems clear. Our ambulance service is stretched. Does anyone know if the ambulance in the accident at Birley has been put back on the road?

[Norseman]

It's shockingly slow.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/may/01/find-speed-ambulance-response-times-uk-postcode

 

"The NHS sets a target that 75% of life-threatening calls are responded to within eight minutes."

 

It took 2 hours and 18 minutes for an ambulance to reach my elderly mother who had a life threatening injury so obviously my mother was in the 25% where the NHS doesn't give a monkeys. This thread has prompted me to do something about it as I am seeking legal advice as the ambulance service is blaming the government for lack of funds however I personally cannot understand how a life threatening injury is considered less than a broken ankle etc... The best bit was she was just 400 meters from the RHH!!!!

[spider1]

It took 2 hours and 18 minutes for an ambulance to reach my elderly mother who had a life threatening injury so obviously my mother was in the 25% where the NHS doesn't give a monkeys. This thread has prompted me to do something about it as I am seeking legal advice as the ambulance service is blaming the government for lack of funds however I personally cannot understand how a life threatening injury is considered less than a broken ankle etc... The best bit was she was just 400 meters from the RHH!!!!

 

If mum was only 400 mtrs away why didnt you get your car out and take her there yourself if it was urgent .

[Daven]

It took 2 hours and 18 minutes for an ambulance to reach my elderly mother who had a life threatening injury so obviously my mother was in the 25% where the NHS doesn't give a monkeys. This thread has prompted me to do something about it as I am seeking legal advice as the ambulance service is blaming the government for lack of funds however I personally cannot understand how a life threatening injury is considered less than a broken ankle etc... The best bit was she was just 400 meters from the RHH!!!!

 

What is a 'life threatening injury' please ?

How is your Mother now ?

What did the ambulance crew say to you when you complained to them on arrival ?

What did the call handler say when you complained about the length of time you had to wait ?

 

---------- Post added 29-09-2015 at 22:03 ----------

 

[/color]

If mum was only 400 mtrs away why didnt you get your car out and take her there yourself if it was urgent .

 

But if it was a 'life threatening injury' in the posters words - the injured person would have to be taken to NGH where the A&E is.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Daven

[scargill]

You can hardly compare a cosy rural area of the Netherlands with an inner city area in the UK

 

No you can't, the response time should be much quicker and resources much greater in the city.

[Daven]

No you can't, the response time should be much quicker and resources much greater in the city.

 

The resources are greater but the demand is greater - it's really quite simple.

Not every 999 call warrants a rapid response with blues and twos.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Daven

[onewheeldave]

This pretty much hits the nail on the head.

 

Weekends in Sheffield are a big stretch on the Ambulance service as it is due to a shortage of vehicles on the road. Any major events in the area obviously stretch things a hell of a lot more and I consider hundreds of drunken, rowdy teenagers as a definite major event.

 

Unfortunately the truth of the matter is that the OP didn't have to wait 50 minutes for an ambulance due to sheer neglect but due to the fact that this was the quickest that it was logistically possible to get a crew to the patient.

 

There are multiple reasons for this and they all have knock on effects. You only have to read the local media to see that ambulances are queuing outside the doors of A&E just to book patients in, recent figures showed that this could take in excess of an hour and even up to 2 hours. Now we don't know how busy A&E at the Northern was but at a weekend you would imagine rather busy which means crews have to wait around and all of this wait time keeps them off the road.

 

The only real solution is to have more crews on the road. Trusts seem to be actively recruiting in an attempt to solve this despite cuts. Again it has been well documented in the local media that not only Sheffield but the UK as a whole is suffering a lack of qualified Ambulance staff.

 

EDIT:- A big well done to the OP by the way. I'm not saying everyone but some people would have simply drove past the patient believing them to be drunk or whatever and at that time of night I would imagine it is quite daunting to have to stop and offer assistance. Not only did you do so but you stayed around the whole time liaising with the ambulance staff. You definitely deserve respect and credit for that.

 

There's another obvious solution, which, I would argue, is better and more practical than more crews on the road (as more crews would require more money- which won't happen).

 

Which is to enable the current crews to do their job by addressing the inept admin system which means that "ambulances are queuing outside the doors of A&E just to book patients in, recent figures showed that this could take in excess of an hour and even up to 2 hours".

[Hesther]

This doesn't account for life in the real world - on a night when Sheffield has had an influx of thousands of new student 18 year olds out on the lash for the first time - the ambulance service doesn't have an infinite number of response crews .

50 minutes is a long time to wait for an ambulance but the caller was on the phone to the call handler the entire time - any deterioration in the casualty would have flagged up and some other poor soul waiting for an ambulance would have been pushed back in the queue.

What is the solution Nagel - apart from the obvious of having more response crews ?

 

So, this happens every year and the service is stretched to the max? This is a foreseeable event. When big numbers are expected for demonstrations, sports events, etc the police ship in numbers from neighbouring forces, 'just in case'. Why doesn't this happen in Sheffield, when actual lives are at risk then?

[peak4]

There's another obvious solution, which, I would argue, is better and more practical than more crews on the road (as more crews would require more money- which won't happen).

 

Which is to enable the current crews to do their job by addressing the inept admin system which means that "ambulances are queuing outside the doors of A&E just to book patients in, recent figures showed that this could take in excess of an hour and even up to 2 hours".

 

I know what you mean, but again the solution would need extra trained staff = more money.

I suspect the "Booking In" isn't admin; more a staff and bed shortage in A&E, which in turn is partly caused by a bed shortage in the hospital, some of which is caused by patients waiting for prescriptions from the pharmacy before discharge etc etc.

 

I've seen this quite a bit, admittedly at a different hospital in a different city (Stockport); My Dad has been a frequent visitor due to a heart complaint.

 

The longest we've had to wait was 55 minutes after the 999 call following a suspected heart attack. This was after he had been discharged too soon, the previous day, due to a bed shortage.

In this case the call handler didn't stay on the line as they expected a fast attendance. When I called back to see why no-one had arrived, I was just told that someone was on their way, but with no ETA. When I called back a second time, after 45 minutes, they got stroppy with me.

Eventually some wonderful staff turned up from Glossop, quite a long way away, so they were unfamiliar with the area and couldn't find the address; they had been given wrong details. Fortunately it all worked out OK in the end.

If someone had just been honest with me and said that there would be a major delay, I could have driven there myself in 10 minutes or less; obviously with a suspected MI the most important thing is to get a paramedic/doctor to the patient, hence not wanting to delay things by me providing the transport.

[*_ash_*]

No you can't, the response time should be much quicker and resources much greater in the city.

 

It probably is quick in this city. That doesn't mean 100% of ambulances will be quick 100% of the time. Even if they had an almost perfect 99.99% record, it still means some poor sod loses out.

 

So, this happens every year and the service is stretched to the max? This is a foreseeable event. When big numbers are expected for demonstrations, sports events, etc the police ship in numbers from neighbouring forces, 'just in case'. Why doesn't this happen in Sheffield, when actual lives are at risk then?

 

See above.

 

Bold: Are you serious? What kind of analogy is this? (for at least 2 reasons)

 

-

 

It IS a foreseeable event, yes, how many 'just in cases' do you get? 'Just in cases' are probably the biggest part of the policing bill.

 

How many ambulances would you acquire and where from?

 

You'll probably find that Fri and Sat night are generally amongst their busiest times in every town/city.

 

Saturday night I would guess there were 30-40000 people out in Sheffield. What if O2 caught fire? Would you say after the event, 'why didn't they have 500 ambulances working?!?' - if that were the number that would have been required to saving everyone's life?

 

It would be interesting to hear from any mobile Paramedics/A&E workers. I'd guess Hesther, that if any staff had asked their manager 'can I have this sat off to go out?' the answer would have been no, you know?

Edited September 30, 2015 by *_ash_*