This is Care Opinion [siteRegion]. Did you want Care Opinion [usersRegionBasedOnIP]?
Care Opinion

pressure and misuse of ambulance service

Posted By tootles

"pressure and misuse of ambulance service"

About: East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust / Emergency ambulance

(as a carer),

Lincoln must do something about relieving the pressure on the service from non urgent (life threatening) calls.

As I have witnessed on many occasions with an elderly neighbour without any family support who is prone to falls and then an ambulance is called, he is not priority so can lay on the floor for many hours. We once sat with him on the coldest night in the year in 2017 and waited for many hours trying to keep him warm with hot water bottles and blankets. We were not able to get him up from the garden where he had fallen. I cannot count how many times this has happened.

The ambulance then get here an have to go through all the protocols which can take a few hours.

I think we need another level of response which can leave the Ambulance and the A&E to deal with the emergencies.

Thankyou,

Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust 5 years ago
We have made a change
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Submitted on 08/11/2018 at 12:34
Published on Care Opinion at 14:04

Hello Tootles,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us, we are sorry to hear that this has happened to you and the distress it must cause you and your neighbour. We must prioritise all of our 999 calls to ensure that we have ambulances to send to our patients whose life is in immediate danger, this can often mean patients with less urgent conditions have to wait a little longer than we would like.

On 1 April we implemented a new Urgent Care Transport Service; this service provides non-blue light conveyance to hospital for our patients who do not need emergency care, this service operates seven days a week. Our Urgent Care Assistants attended our lower category of calls and we have already seen a big impact on our waiting times.

We are also working hard with our local hospitals to ensure our crews can hand a patient over quickly and not waiting long periods of time, this will ensure our crews are ready and available to respond to calls waiting in the community.

We also have some pilots taking place within Lincolnshire where our specialist paramedics are working within General Practice Surgeries on the East Coast to try and reduce lengthy conveyances to Boston Pilgrim Hospital for non-emergency care. More information about this and other ways in which we are trying to improve can be read in our stakeholder newsletter, EMAS news- https://www.emasnews.org.uk/issue-9-october-2018.

If you would like to share your experience with our Patient Advice and Liaison Team we would be able to fully investigate any delays you have experienced. They can be contacted via- https://www.emas.nhs.uk/your-service/patient-experience/.

Richard Hunter

Paramedic and Ambulance Operations Manager

Lincolnshire Division

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k