Health Service

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

I'm sorry if this errs on the side of political and if it does please delete but it's just too terrible to ignore...

Our health service is broken. The target for category 2 ambulence call outs is 18 minutes - that’s for strokes and heart attacks. In reality it is 1 HOUR 32 MINUTES! In one case it was over 12 hours. We even have our own personal plans ready to go - if one of our family falls ill, we're backing the car onto the yard, bundling the person into the back and driving them OURSELVES to Accident and Emergency, no two ways.

And we class ourselves a first world country!

 

[tvguy]

That would be unacceptable. The Fire District I live in has an average response time.......from the time the call is answered at dispatch, until the ambulance arrives.......is 6 minutes. The next fire District over it is 9 minutes and that is under investigation as being too long.
HOWEVER, the issue here is time it takes to see a Doctor at the ER from the time the ambulance arrives.....that is 90 minutes! Not only is that a problem for patient care, it keeps Paramedics off the street for 90 minutes just waiting.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

What I don't get is HOW we got to this frightening statistic. The NHS used to be the jewel in the British crown, now it's a shambles.

 

[GAN]

Wow… that’s crazy!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Here we also have a very big ambulance problem. Not so much with EMS, at least where I live, but with transport of patients (though it’s probably all related). We receive a lot of patients from other facilities, often critically ill or with complex medical issues. It can take six or more hours to get an ambulance to take them from one place or another. Similarly, trying to get an ambulance to move patients from our hospital to rehab is also frustratingly long, which contributes to a back up of beds. So you’re not alone. It’s a relatively new problem.

The pandemic and all if its issues has taken a toll on the entire health system, sadly.

Btw traditionally it was not recommended to drive people or themselves to the hospital during emergencies. Things can go bad in the car and there can be accidents or rapid decompensation; ambulances have much of what the patient needs to get started (oxygen, IVs, nitroglycerine or other drugs, tourniquets, etc.) along with trained personnel. It‘s tough to decide what to do in a big emergency, but people are going to do what they have to do. Too bad we don’t have crystal balls to help us make decisions in the moment. (Because hindsight is always 20/20.)

 

[fla4fun]

I saw on the news that there is a group in one city that is giving ordinary citizens training in how to deal with gunshot wounds and other critical emergencies, because the ambulance service is so slow. It’s sort of along the lines of CPR training, which these people also receive.

Could it be that they aren’t getting enough people choosing emergency services as a career? Two of my cousins were EMTs (now retired) and I know the work was both physically and emotionally draining.

 

[dez1978]

I read a story a couple days ago where a woman was taken to the ER by her husband, sat for several hours in severe pain and was basically ignored. They finally got her in a room and wanted a urine sample. She was in so much pain she ended up on the floor and died around 12 hrs after arrival having never been seen by a dr. Turns out she was bleeding internally that whole time.

 

[cvjw]

I read a story a couple days ago where a woman was taken to the ER by her husband, sat for several hours in severe pain and was basically ignored. They finally got her in a room and wanted a urine sample. She was in so much pain she ended up on the floor and died around 12 hrs after arrival having never been seen by a dr. Turns out she was bleeding internally that whole time.

This was in Canada, according to the story I read. So sad. She was a young woman too.

 

[mjkacmom]

I’ve had to call 911 several times here, ambulance, fire, police, I’d say under 2 minutes. Now our local rescue squad was disbanded after a member was found to have been stealing (they were awesome, insurance was billed and they never asked for $ from patients), but I think our firehouse took over (1 paid, 2 volunteer, 3 mile town). People here complain about high property taxes and say we don’t get anything for them, I disagree (our roads are also plowed well and quickly).