999 - Emergency

[bainbrig]

Just watching a recent episode of “999 - what’s your emergency?”

It concentrated on the dire shortage of ambulance crews in Wiltshire and the consequent massive delays in getting help to people.

For instance, a75-year-old woman who’d fallen in her garden, broken her hip, and who was left lying on her grass on a cold evening (February) for over two hours, as the ambulances were all busy with higher priority calls.

Outrageous.

Austerity? All because governments have baled out the spivs and barrow boys in their banks and the Stock Exchange!

Will any of THEM be lying, in pain, for hours in the cold if they fall down? Will they heck as like.

[naomi24]

Thank you, bainbrig. Not so difficult though. Just a little rationality does it.

[rowanwitch]

During the last two weeks of his illness Dave was also a low priority despite being in pain and distress, after being told he had to be admitted we first had to wait for a bed to be available, about 5 hours and then four hours for a non urgent ambulance. The crew in our case were told to take Dave to a bed, and they just left, they were at the end of their shift. It was lucky I was able to give a handover to the nursing staff. He arrived on the ward before 11 pm. And didn't see a doctor for pain medication until 4am. He couldn't even get into bed because it hadn't been changed after the previous patient.