Ambulance responses

[T00ts]

Last Wednesday we had a medical emergency to deal with. I called 111 for a start for advice, and a bot told me to use 111 online as a triage.
That wasted 10 minutes, then 111 online after a short time came up with a big red notice.
Phone 999 for an ambulance now

I phoned 999 for an ambulance and I and the patient spoke to them. They agreed it was an emergency and we were put in the queue for the emergency response.

"How long will it be"

Reply "It may be 2 hours or more". This was a cardiac emergency!

I ended up taking the patient to hospital myself.
The health service is broken. This is unacceptable, isn't it?

Most certainly it is unacceptable but then an awful lot of the so called services are unacceptable. I have some sympathy for Ambulance crews when you hear that they suffer attacks etc from the public they try to help, but I do remember too that some years ago we had far more ambulance 'garages' and they have disappeared. For a time I used to see an ambulance parked up on the pavement at a bypass near me and they have gone from there too. I remember at the time hearing that it was positioned there because it was central to several other areas. Is it cuts or simple mismanagement? Are those in charge of the local cash spending it wisely? Circumstances suggest not. It might be interesting to spend time at the local hospital and count how many are parked up waiting. I hope the patient is ok.

[Barry]

Last Wednesday we had a medical emergency to deal with. I called 111 for a start for advice, and a bot told me to use 111 online as a triage.
That wasted 10 minutes, then 111 online after a short time came up with a big red notice.
Phone 999 for an ambulance now

I phoned 999 for an ambulance and I and the patient spoke to them. They agreed it was an emergency and we were put in the queue for the emergency response.

"How long will it be"

Reply "It may be 2 hours or more". This was a cardiac emergency!

I ended up taking the patient to hospital myself.
The health service is broken. This is unacceptable, isn't it?