What's "an ambulance with a dislocated shoulder"? Do your journalists have any grasp of sentence structure?

If your life is not in danger then you should wait or make your own way.Emergency ambulances are not taxis.

Chris wrote:
What's "an ambulance with a dislocated shoulder"? Do your journalists have any grasp of sentence structure?

I was wondering the same thing!

I personally think they did the right thing by calling for a taxi.

Ambulances are there for LIFE THREATENING emergencies.

Cases like this are the reason why amublances are queueing at A&e departments so I find it highy hypocritical of the daughter to complain how may vehicles were parked up outside the Gwent when she could have quite easily added to that number when the poor person in cardiac arrest waits to have their life saved.

(Spelling and gramma in my post? Who cares. I don't)

BD wrote:
I personally think they did the right thing by calling for a taxi. Ambulances are there for LIFE THREATENING emergencies. Cases like this are the reason why amublances are queueing at A&e departments so I find it highy hypocritical of the daughter to complain how may vehicles were parked up outside the Gwent when she could have quite easily added to that number when the poor person in cardiac arrest waits to have their life saved. (Spelling and gramma in my post? Who cares. I don't)

i agree (i think it was 4 a simpathy vote)lol how long b4 councel get a letter lol

Firstly I agree that ambulances are for emergencies such as cardiac arrests or someone not breathing etc, a dislocated shoulder is hardly an emergency is it? And as for the ambulances parked outside the hospital a&e they would usually have patients in them that have been rushed to the hospital and are still being stabilised, or they are cleaning them after having had a patient. If god forbid this lady's mother should ever have a cardiac arrest I'm sure "we had to help someone with a dislocated shoulder first" would not cut it as an excuse if her mother died in the meanwhile.

Ambulance chasing lawyer alert....!!!! Oh sorry, that should have read taxi chasing lawyer...

I agree with the subtext of the other posters. Ambulances are for emergency calls, not for minor injuries and first aid. However, thats all well and good until your injured and unable to transport yourself. There needs to be non urgent patient transport units with first aiders available to call, these being able to offer both first aid and transportation to hospital in cases where alternative transport is scarce - however, as with ambulances, such a good-will type service will always be subject to abuse.

If I'm correct, we have 8 ambulances in this area, 7 were "out of commission" at the hospital, and the one available one was trying to pick up someone who wasn't there....

I wonder how many of you were at the scene, let alone have studied First Aid. It may have been a dislocated shoulder but there may have been internal injuries. If ambulances are only for emergencies then why are patients waiting in them outside A & E at RGH. Come on everyone, start thinking b4 using these posts.

I recently followed an ambulance that was carrying my daughter who was suffering from a suspected heart attack which fortunately wasn’t.
On arrival at the RGH she was taken into the A&E where we had to wait until she was seen by a doctor and this took sometime because of other patients that were brought in by other ambulance crews also waiting.
In the meantime quite a number of ambulances were parked outside A&E and the crews of these were unable to return to their vehicles until they had put their patients into the hands of a doctor and we were all waiting patiently in a corridor.

It should be made possible that when ambulance crews arrive at the hospital then they should be able to hand their patients into the care of a qualified person so that they can return to their duties of being immediately available for emergencies.

Alun_C wrote:
I wonder how many of you were at the scene, let alone have studied First Aid. It may have been a dislocated shoulder but there may have been internal injuries. If ambulances are only for emergencies then why are patients waiting in them outside A & E at RGH. Come on everyone, start thinking b4 using these posts.

I am a techinician for the ambulance service though not in south east wales. There is my qualification in pre hospital care and maked me qualified to comment on this.

Please tell me what internal injuries could have been suffered as the result of a dislocated shoulder. Othere than circulation problems there really isn't any. The mechanism of injury (the fall) was not far enough to cause any internal injuries.

When you dial 999 and reqest an ambulance, you are asked a series of questions relating to the paitient. This is to determine the kind of response needed and the priority of the call. I have no doubt that this would have been coded as a 17A01 Green. This means that the department of health have deemed this to be a low priority and the call taker would have advised that an ambulance could take upto an HOUR to arrive as it would be coming without lights and sirens going (I wouldn't go putting myself and the public at risk by driving under emergency conditions to this call). This also means that it stands a high chance of being diverted to a higher priority call.

The reason why ambulances are having to wait outside A&E departments is purely the result of people abusing the service and treating it as a taxi firm. Because this is a NON LIFE THREATENING case the crew would have to wait with the paitient until the doctors have triaged her. Again, because it is non life threatening the hospital staff will be in no hurry to off load to free up the ambulance.

People need to be educated in when to call an ambulance. If you are suffering from central chest pain please call 999. If you have a paper cut then put a plaster on it. If you have had an upset tummy for the past few days please call NHS Direct on 0845 46 47 or see your GP.

Sorry, forgot to add that I don't care about my spelling or gramma.

Lastly, stories like this are the reason why the ambulance service are seen in such a bad light.

Argus, how about actually reporting on stories where the skills of the ambulance service are praised and not criticised for a change?

I too have worked as a professional first aider. I am all too acutely aware of the issues surounding ambulance abuse. I've often recommended hospital treatment for casualties, but never called an ambulance to do it, because the patient was not in a state that required medical treatment on the move...

If you want to have ambulance issues, try friday night drunks... I've seen several ambulances mopping them up... why?? Because the people calling them are drunk and incapable of assessing a patient's needs first...

I'm so glad that there is no risk that BD will ever decide whether he drives his ambulance to me. Has he never heard of head injuries resulting from a fall, how many people would notice let alone to qualified to identify whether such an injury had occurred, certainly not a telephonisist read Q&A cards in a far-flung call centre at Mamhilad. Hospital staff and ambulance crews are in no hurry to leave the Gwent simply because the quicker they get away, the quicker they return with more work to do, and targets go out of the window!!!

I'm with Papa on this, having been taken to the Gwent by ambulance they had to wait with me, standing in the corridor next to me on a trolley unable to return as there was no one available to see to me. There were 2 other crews ahead of us, also with patients... 3 crews held up because there were no staff available to take care of us.
It the hospital system that needs to change not the ambulance system. I have nothing but praise for the ambulance crews.
As for a trip on a pavement resulting in serious head injuries... unlikely and yes I would know what to look for and i've had no training.. unlike the people on the 999 phones.

WheelyPete wrote:
I'm so glad that there is no risk that BD will ever decide whether he drives his ambulance to me. Has he never heard of head injuries resulting from a fall, how many people would notice let alone to qualified to identify whether such an injury had occurred, certainly not a telephonisist read Q&A cards in a far-flung call centre at Mamhilad. Hospital staff and ambulance crews are in no hurry to leave the Gwent simply because the quicker they get away, the quicker they return with more work to do, and targets go out of the window!!!

You really don't have any idea do you? Your post really humours me.

The person that called 999 would have been asked:

Location
Paitent age
What has happened
Is the paitent concious?
Is the paitent breathing?
When did this happen?
How far did they fall?
What part of the body is injured?

Now if the caller had stated that she had hit her head, the next question would have been:-

Is the paitent completly awake (alert)?

If there was any eviadence of a head injury then I am 100% sure the original caller would have said so. It's not hard to see if someone has hit their head if they have fallen on paving. Hint, 99% of the time there will be a graze or blood.

The Q&A cards are in use with ambulance services around the world. They are a very effective form of telephone triage and will continue to be.

Lastly, we have a 20 minute turnaround time once at hospital. That means we have to hand over the paitient, book the paitent in, redress the stretcher, clean the back of the vehicle and restock equipment used.

The reason why we queue at hospital is firstly there are no beds, secondly the beds that are free are taken up by people who don't really need to be there (ie social cases). It is these problems that cause us to queue at hospitals. If there are no bed we cannot off load. Simple really.


(spelling and gramma? who cares?)

WheelyPete wrote:
I'm so glad that there is no risk that BD will ever decide whether he drives his ambulance to me. Has he never heard of head injuries resulting from a fall, how many people would notice let alone to qualified to identify whether such an injury had occurred, certainly not a telephonisist read Q&A cards in a far-flung call centre at Mamhilad. Hospital staff and ambulance crews are in no hurry to leave the Gwent simply because the quicker they get away, the quicker they return with more work to do, and targets go out of the window!!!

You aint got a clue have you. Going off from the above story. How would you cope trying to calm down a hysteical parent down the phone whos calling because thier baby is not breathing or trying to get someone to do cpr on a loved one.If we are just telephonist I would work for BT. We are qualified to assess and prioritize the call.Dont moan about the ambulance service when there is no ambulances because people have rang 999 for tooth ache and ingrowing toenails. The assembly have a policy that we must attend all 999 no matter what so the person with contact lenses stuck in their eyes will get a ambulance unfortunately and while they are at the address and some one is having a heart attack whos fault is it then ? ours ? the assemblys ? the pt with the contact lenses. People need to be educated when to ring 999 there are other services i.e nhs direct, your doctors,ooh. and just to make note there are less way less than 8 ambualnces in newport.

BD wrote:

WheelyPete wrote: I'm so glad that there is no risk that BD will ever decide whether he drives his ambulance to me. Has he never heard of head injuries resulting from a fall, how many people would notice let alone to qualified to identify whether such an injury had occurred, certainly not a telephonisist read Q&A cards in a far-flung call centre at Mamhilad. Hospital staff and ambulance crews are in no hurry to leave the Gwent simply because the quicker they get away, the quicker they return with more work to do, and targets go out of the window!!!

You really don't have any idea do you? Your post really humours me. The person that called 999 would have been asked: Location Paitent age What has happened Is the paitent concious? Is the paitent breathing? When did this happen? How far did they fall? What part of the body is injured? Now if the caller had stated that she had hit her head, the next question would have been:- Is the paitent completly awake (alert)? If there was any eviadence of a head injury then I am 100% sure the original caller would have said so. It's not hard to see if someone has hit their head if they have fallen on paving. Hint, 99% of the time there will be a graze or blood. The Q&A cards are in use with ambulance services around the world. They are a very effective form of telephone triage and will continue to be. Lastly, we have a 20 minute turnaround time once at hospital. That means we have to hand over the paitient, book the paitent in, redress the stretcher, clean the back of the vehicle and restock equipment used. The reason why we queue at hospital is firstly there are no beds, secondly the beds that are free are taken up by people who don't really need to be there (ie social cases). It is these problems that cause us to queue at hospitals. If there are no bed we cannot off load. Simple really. (spelling and gramma? who cares?)

i agree with every coment you have said i would just like to say when ive ever need the ambulance services all staff have been great and try to help in every way but @ the end of the day this woman didnt need to call for ambulance did she NO so every1 stop this silly argument she was in the wrong. so BD somware in gwent isnt wrong