"Could be more polite, not dismissive, less…"

As this was at the height of the first lockdown, I appreciate things were not easy or smooth running. I placed a call to our GP at Moatfield Surgery, as my father had become very unwell and needed hospital care urgently, myself and my mother could not care for him safely at home. This GP called us back having called East Surrey Hospital A & E Dept Doctors, who were waiting for him to arrive, to advise me to call an ambulance, which I did. When the paramedics arrived the male paramedic told me twice that we don't provide a transport service, I said I knew this and that my father's GP had told us to call you to take him to hospital, they couldn't accept initially my father didn't have dementia, the illness he had only had an onset of one month far too quick for dementia. If he had not had his blood sugar tested I believe they would not have taken my father to hospital, as it was high. They couldn't seem to understand why the GP wasn't with us as did the call handler, GP home visits had ceased due to lockdown, I thought that this was general knowledge. To be clear my father was hallucinating, talking gibberish, had a rash and could not walk without falling over. He turned out to have bacterial meningitis. I cannot fault the hospital staff and doctor's. I just think perhaps some younger paramedics as the ones were who were sent to us, could benefit from some training in how not to make prejudgements or unnecessary comments. To perhaps assume we called an ambulance because my father was seriously ill. The fact that this bothers me a year on, is why I felt I had to get this noted down. I am grateful they finally did take my father to hospital, but it was for me the brief worry that they were not going to and what would we have done then. My father was very unwell and may have died without treatment, there was no way we could have taken him by car ourselves in a full lockdown. Thankfully he recovered and was able to come home. But I just do not wish this to happen to other people in need, the worry of whether they will be taken seriously and whether they will get the hospital care they need.