Ambulances are really helpful to us in our time of need but every now and then they take a little longer than usual to get to you, its usually not their fault. People jump to all sorts of conclusions but rarely the right one.
In recent years there has been a rise in calling an ambulance for non-emergency use and sometimes because they cannot get a GPs an appointment any time soon. They do this in the hope they can see a doctor sooner, but if it is not life-threatening then you could be in for a long wait on those hard metal seats.
Because the A&E department is getting clogged up with non-urgent cases this has a knock-on effect with delaying ambulances getting to people who need their help and also with people in an ambulance trying to get in A&E
An incident I heard recently where a lady called the ambulance service stating that her husband was having difficulty breathing. They arrived slightly quicker than the lady thought they would and only to find the lady’s husband had disappeared to the shop to buy some cigarettes. The ambulance was tied up for 30 minutes waiting for him to get back and checking him over and he was fine.
This is becoming more common because the waiting times for GPs appointments can be a couple of weeks or more and they dont want to wait.
Do they really need to call an ambulance though thats the question.
Luckily hoax callers are quite rare so I am informed, but that doesn’t mean they do not happen off course. Recently read an article in the national press about this and apparently, some people are habitual hoaxers and call the ambulance service several times a day.
They know exactly what to say to the call handler to get up to the top of the triage list and they say things such as I have chest pains and having difficulty breathing and this triggers a level 1 response.
I often wondered what goes through a hoaxer’s head, and just imagine for a moment a child is in desperate need of a paramedic because the child is choking, or someone has had an accident in the home and bleeding badly. Both of these would warrant urgent assistance and the hoaxer has tied up vital resources so they can get a thrill of seeing ‘blue lights’ racing up there street.
It really makes my blood boil it really does, but I have thought they may be suffering from mental health or social issues and because funding is virtually non-existent for these services, they cannot source the help they may need.
Just a thought.
Over the last 8 years or so we have had some serious cutbacks in an attempt by the government to balance the books and to bring the country out of austerity.
But this has lead to cutbacks in social care and mental health too and much of the social care and mental health departments only work 9 – 5 because of staff shortages and they have huge waiting lists for the people who need their services, so the downward spiral starts.
This then puts pressure on the ambulance and police service to try and help these people who have social issues or mental health issues, and then they get taken to A&E so slowing that down because what staff they have who could help only work 9 – 5 because of cutbacks.
We will always have people calling for an ambulance and in most cases, an ambulance is probably required to help someone who is having a really bad day. BUT equally, we will also get people calling an ambulance because they cannot get a GP appointment for a couple of weeks thinking they will go to the front of the queue but very rarely does, not unless its life-threatening of course.
So until this is looked at and funding is placed in the areas such as mental health, social care issues, more GPs, this will fall on the A&E departments which are at breaking point, Ambulance services, Police services, and charities who provide these services.
So, do we need to call an ambulance? if it’s life-threatening YES.
We will always have people who will abuse the ambulance service and this will continue till the government sorts its funding out and how the funding is spent to bring the NHS and associated services to be the envy of the world again as it once was. But in the meantime, perhaps more people should be learning first aid skills that would help lower the non-emergency call-outs for the ambulance service.
On our work based first aid courses such as Emergency first aid at work, First aid at work, our delegates understand when an ambulance should be called or when getting them seen at a walk-in centre or GPs surgery would better suit the casualty.
Centre No 15227
Getting found when lost