When is an emergency not an emergency?

A friend was out riding his horse a few years back when he and the horse parted company on a quiet country road. The horse disappeared at a fast pace leaving him lying there on the tarmac, unable to get up (he'd broken the head of his femur, but didn't realise it at the time). He telephoned the A & E department of the local hospital and explained and asked if they could come and pick him up so that he could be examined by one of their doctors. "You need to call an ambulance" he was told. "But ambulances are only for emergencies" he replied. "Can you get up?" the A & E nurse enquired. "No, I can't move my leg" he said. "Well," she said, "I rather think that's an emergency, don't you?" We've never let him live that one down! He did dial 999 and was most apologetic to the call handler and the ambulance crew when they reached him.

I’ve been in an ambulance twice. One time with chest pains due to heart problem and 2nd fainted due to low blood pressure which resulted in hitting my head on a radiator and cutting my eyebrow. I used work in a pharmacy and many people who needed help with health problems were very reluctant to see a doctor if they were advised too. I found the older generation we’re very reluctant to see their GP. Many people make unnecessary appointments with their GP when they could visit the pharmacy and speak to a Pharmacist who could advise what would be best to treat their symptoms or if they really needed to see a doctor. I have heard people call 999 over stupid things like ‘my takeaway hasn’t arrived’. I feel those people should be fined because someone who really needs an ambulance could die.

I’m a paramedic and go to loads of inappropriate calls, young healthy adults with a couple of hours of sickness and diarrhoea, sprained thumbs, people who think calling 999 will enable them to jump the queue to see a particular specialist and people who lie and say they have chest pain in order to get a quicker response when they actually have a mildly sore elbow. It has got much worse over the last ten years.
The worst one was going to a woman who had cut her knuckles on a cheese grater, the cut was barely even a graze but she had told the call taker she had serious bleeding and had lost over a mug full of blood thus warranting a red response.
All these calls can mean we are late going to the elderly people on the floor.
People over estimate the number of ambulances available, today,for example, there were 5 ambulances and a car to cover a very large university town with a population of 300,000 and many surrounding villages. Most people, when asked assume we have 20+.

My SIL works in A nd E and one of his main complaints is the excess pressure put on the staff there by those who attend that department when it is NOT an emergency or an Accident which definitely does need medical intervention. The number of drunks they have to deal with is also a huge addition to their stress.
MySIL does enjoy the job for which he studied hard, but it could be less stressful if the public thought a bit more before going there,especially by the much overworked ambulances.

Jessycake I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how distressing that must have been for you all.

I also suspect that people end up calling an ambulance because they don't know what else to do. At one time, you called your GP surgery or you called 999. Now, you don't know if you should consult the current incarnation of the phone service (it's changed its name here and I don't actually know what the number is any more), or go to Minor Injuries or the OOH service. A&E isn't accessible except via the ambulance service.

Not everywhere has the same system, either, so in one area you may have an OOH and Minor Injuries unit but not in another, especially as they keep reconfiguring the services and they move around.

I don't condone it but I do understand why people who are possibly in a panic just dial 999.

sue Where do you live that that A&E is not accessible apart from via the ambulance service?

I’m 74 and have been in an ambulance once, when I was 15.
I’ve never been to A and E with a child, and I had four children.
I was told to go to A and E when I had glass embedded in a finger and again when bleeding badly the day after an operation. I think a GP would have dealt with these in the past. Waiting time to see a GP here is 3 weeks.
Minor accidents don’t need an ambulance or even a doctor. People have less common sense than they used to.

From time to time we have spells of calling an ambulance out for DH. He apologised to one of the paramedics who came because he was being a nuisance and was told "Nonsense! With the problems you've got you are a priority!"

Dizziblonde I'm in NE Scotland. The doors to A&E are kept locked and you will only be admitted direct via ambulance. Everyone else has to be referred there via other services. My dd is a student medic there and told me how the system works.

I've been to hospital by ambulance twice, once at age 11 with appendicitis and once when my dad had a heart attack. The last time one was called for me it was 111 who called it. I had called them when I woke after a nap, on a Sunday afternoon, with a strange pain in my arm which didn't go away after moving around, stretching etc. If I didn't live alone I probably would have thought little of it but, having heard that heart attacks can be preceded by pain down the left arm, I rang 111 to get advice. The paramedic in an ambulance car arrived, covered me in electrodes and did various tests, but was unable to find any problem. I felt embarrassed and was apologising for wasting his time but he said it was not wasting his time as there could have been something seriously wrong - clearly 111 thought so. The ambulance service don't mind attending false alarms but they do mind deliberate hoaxes and people who really should know better when their problem is trivial. I've certainly accessed A&E without an ambulance with both my children on various occasions and I'm surprised that an A&E department exists with access only by ambulance. On one occasion it was boxing day so I can't imagine how I'd have found anywhere to refer us, but systems are changing everywhere - possibly because of abuse by some - which may eventually make life difficult for everyone due to the thoughtlessness of the few.

First time I was in an ambulance was about two hours after I came home with my newborn after having her by caesarean. I’d coughed and my wound had opened and I was bleeding heavily. As I was loaded into the vehicle one of the parsmedics quipped I was being returned under the Guarantee!
They took me back to the maternity unit I’d left just hours earlier, where they asked me where the baby was. We’d left her with the neighbours, plus a bottle !!! Didn’t live that down for a long time.

In Australia some gp clinics have an 'acute care' section where you get the same care as an a&e for more minor things, cuts, simple breaks, sprains etc. If you are on the pension they are bulk billed so cost nothing, same as a public hospital, but you are seen without much delay. Ambulances take simple cases there too.

I have never been in an ambulance, but have had to call them for other people (a stroke, RTAs, a fall downstairs). But last year I was shopping in M&S when I had a nosebleed, not really a severe one. An assistant called an ambulance!! She said it was company policy. I protested continually and by the time the ambulance arrived the bleeding had stopped and I was fine. I felt the ambulance crew's time had been badly wasted. I didn't go to hospital, just carried on with my shopping and went home.

My daughter called an ambulance for me when I had tripped and broken two bones in my foot and another time I rang 111 because I had slight chest pains and they called one for me. Both times my husband was at work. Any other emergencies have involved me or my husband driving to A&E. I sometimes wonder why people have gone to A&E with things I would have taken to my GP first. To be honest going to A&E would always be my last resort as we've been their with elderly parents and they've had to wait in a corridor for hours on end.

I'd almost forgotten - the first time I was taken to hospital in an ambulance was 72 years ago when I had pneumonia. Can't remember much about it, except being wrapped in a red blanket. The ambulances (and other emergency vehicles) in those days had a bell where they now have a siren and blue lights. 3 weeks later, I was brought home, also by ambulance.