Getting an ambulance

The weekend before last I went into AF in the middle of the Friday night and after about 12 hours of this I rang 111, as I was very weak and barely able to walk. I live alone so thought it was time I got some help. 111 sent an ambulance so an ECG could be done.

The ambulance arrived within half an hour and during the time they were here running tests, I asked them how busy they were. They had gone on shift at 6.30am and were with me at around 5pm and they told me that I was their THIRD call of the day!! I was staggered.

I declined to go to A&E and asked whether they could contact a doctor on my behalf so I could get phone advice based on the ECG results. In order to do this they had to ring 111 - unbelievable! They too had to sit on the phone for half an our listening to the repeated message about getting a flu jab, before they could arrange this.

I had assumed they would have some sort of "hotline" or passcode that would get them put through speedily so that they can get advice when needed.

I had 3 phone calls during the evening advising me to take larger and larger beta blocker dosages - it did not settle until half way through Sunday morning.

On the Monday morning I rang the GP surgery and asked for an appointment to speak to my GP about management of the problem in the future. I was told it would be 4-5 weeks for an appointment, unless it was an emergency - I said that maybe we might treat this as an emergency. GP rang back in 10 minutes.

Funny old service the NHS - either very good or hopeless with some strange organisational rules.