I just wanted to share my fear, frustration and anger two nights ago, when we called an Ambulance at 3am, because of my severe chest pain, and suspected HA.. But it took 2.5 hours to arrive.
A year ago the same category call took 1.5 hours,
Two years it took 20 minutes.
Not the NHS i have always thought of as my health safety-net.
I guess, if left for 2.5 hours, most heart attack patients are likely to be over the crisis, or dead?
Not a posting to get on our political band-wagons. Please dont!
But to share my frustration and perhaps exchange ideas on what to do?
How can we increase our chance of survival, without a timely Ambulance service?
Next time, I’d probably try and get a lift, when 999 said ambulances were ‘very busy’.
Written by
Kristin1812
Heart Star
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25 Replies
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Very interesting post and what can we do to help our survival while we wait for delayed help?
If you are with someone that understands your illness they could help by reassurance, taking temp/ blood pressure etc
but not sure what we can do? stay as calm as possible? take aspirin ? hopefully someone with more training will be able to answer such an interesting question and post.
I for one will be popping back to see those answers.
But back to you it must have been such a worry for you and your loved ones, what did you do? did it help in anyway?
I am so glad that your over that horrible experience that your willing to share in the hope of improving life for others.
Big thank you for your thoughts and ideas. Yes, having someone close there makes it much easier. My husband is pretty used to my heart events, and knows i wont speak or move v much during the event. He tries to keep very calm, guesses what practical stuff is needed like reminding me to take double sprays, lie flat on the cool floor, he keeps notes of whats happening, calls 999 again if anything significant changes, takes my BP etc
Not really sure how people might cope on their own. It must be much more difficult.
Here's the way I think this problem could be solved. Let's have GP's on call out 24hrs as we used to have. Re-open all the minor injuries/casualty departments (usually at local cottage hospitals) which were closed a few years ago. Then ambulances could concentrate on the more serious cases, like yours. Thinking about it just go back to how we used to be many years ago.
It's totally scary now. I live alone in a rural area, and the last time 111 called an ambulance I cancelled it after 3+hours, and the previous time I cancelled after 7+hours. These were cat 2 calls.If I get another episode I think I will try to get a lift. It would be helpful if MIIUs were reopened, they are not geared up for heart issues, but they would have more knowledge than friends and family.
I wonder if the NHS is too compartmentalised, my niece appeared to have an allergic reaction to a wasp sting, she was unable to make a sound. The GP surgery said they couldn't help, they didn't carry the necessary drugs, and to call an ambulance.
Edited to add that I did a self referral to physiotherapy yesterday, and this morning I had a phone call to arrange an appointment for less than 2 weeks time. I am so very grateful
I don't know if you are young Heartifact but that's the system we used to have and it worked well. All GP's weren't on call at night, just the duty one and the local hospital treated minor injuries and had x-ray facilities. There wouldn't be so many people in A&E, for instance many years ago I remember a friend in agony with a gallstone attack calling her GP because the pain was too great to bear. He came and gave her an injection that took the pain away. Last year both myself and my sister had gallstone episodes that were too painful to bear and went to A&E by ambulance (we've both had them removed now). When you have gallstones, the pain is horrendous, but you have to go on a waiting list to have them removed and suffer the severe pain until then. No GP to come out and give you a pain reliving injection to prevent the need to go to A&E. I've begged the paramedics to give me pain relief at home but guess what, they can't give you morphine unless they have you in the ambulance and are taking you to hospital.
Now if you hurt your foot, or for that matter anywhere on your leg, you don't know if its broken or just a sprain. This could have been sorted by a visit to a small hospital.
Yes, that's true also Milkfairy. There are private and council run nursing homes with free beds that they could move the bed blocking patients to. I helped run a nursing home for 10 years, so know that as a fact. There also used to be places where you could go to recuperate straight from hospital, but they too have now been closed.
In September I went to A&E with severe palpitations, it was not the first time it had happened. I was admitted and have now had a pacemaker fitted. I waited in A & E for 13 hours before they found a bed in Cardiology for me. Once on the ward my treatment was first class.
"How can we increase our chance of survival, without a timely Ambulance service?"
Good question. And one I've thought about a great deal as I spend quite a lot of time a long way from medical help. I compete in off-shore yacht races, my wife and I take long haul flights, and we also enjoy cruising holidays where even though there's a ship's doctor there's none of the stenting facilities that have reduced heart attack fatalities so dramatically.
My conclusion is that if my risks are increased in one area I'll try for a compensating reduction elsewhere. So I make sure my weight stays well under control, I eat a mediterranean diet with no processed foods or between meal snacks, I exercise at least up the NHS recommended level of 150 minutes per week, and I'm meticulous about taking my medication.
In other words, if heart attacks and strokes are less survivable then the logical response is to reduce the risk of having one in the first place.
What makes your question especially relevant is that it's almost certain that this problem is going to get worse before it gets better. The real underlying problem is we have an ageing population that's becoming progressively sicker and more overweight. So the poor old NHS will have to run just to stand still, and the hard truth is that staff shortages and funding constraints means it can barely stagger let alone run.
We rightly celebrate the trend to increased life expectancy, but what's not publicised as much is that instead of longer fit lives, we're actually getting more years of poor health at the end of our lives. And because older, sicker people use a disproportionate amount of NHS resources there's almost certain to be ever greater delays and waiting lists for many years to come.
It's gloomy prospect, so the only sensible response is for us all to take more care with our own health.
You're right. Its essential that we take as much responsibility for our own health as we can, and try to reduce health crises, particularly if the NHS isn't as reliable. These unstable events are many fewer since I lost 10 kilos and do at least 10k steps each day. I’m guessing that getting my stress more under control might help a lot, too.
Whatever the solution is to this increasingly unsettling and scary NHS delivery problem, I think it's unlikely to happen quickly.
What should people taken ill and in need of an ambulance do in the meantime? I do not know. What I do know is that if one is seriously ill and calls a taxi, they may refuse to act as an alternative to ambulance transport on grounds that the company won't allow drivers to take responsibility for dealing with what might turn out to be a full-on emergency unfolding on their back seat.
If there are no friends or family who can provide alternative transport to A&E, it seems to me it's a case of waiting for an ambulance and hoping for the best. That's hardly ideal and definitely not reassuring for those with frightening symptoms and/or serious health conditions.
Personally, I'd be willing to pay more tax (if it was ring-fenced) to get our NHS properly sorted out, but no politician to date seems to be up to dealing with the challenge. I hope, rather than know, that political reticence isn't an indication of the planned demise by stealth of our amazing and free-at-point-of delivery NHS.
The old saying is that 'you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone'. Well, I do know what we've got with our NHS and I don't want it to go!
A friend was in the same situation, no ambulances “ likely to be available for quite some time.” Her elderly husband had to drive 20 miles on dark country roads, trying to keep her propped up with one hand, drive with the other.
She survived, but I think he nearly had a heart attack to match hers.
We do need to be given advice on self-help - certainly can’t rely on NHS at present, sadly.
I hope you are from the UK? I agree with you about the delays in ambulances these days. I am also a heart patient with one stent. Recently I found out about the private ambulance service. I can give the details of this if any one needs. They charge between 900 pounds to 1400 pounds but then again your life is worth more than that. If you have medical insurance you could claim from your insurance. You may talk about this with your medical insurance company for more details. You could save your life by reaching A&E in time. I feel £900 to 1400 depending on the area you live in is worth considering. Dave C
i am in the UK. The reason most ambulances are inavailable is because so many are queueing up at A and Es. Beds are being blocked due to lack of available social care. I was told my local DCH was diverting ambulances, so we would have had to go a lot further.
They gave me the choice, and I decided to stay at home, having to sign a refusal of treatment form (i think it was called that) after they checked vital signs BP and ECG, and said i was stable. I always get a treponin and further observation and tests if I go to A and E, with my history of 3 previous heart attacks.
What has happed to voluntary first responders or johns ambulance. cant they help? Would be good to always get a backup responder or helper system in place like during c first aid training in case you need cpr and general support, also for those who fall. I volunteered during the v and was a phone app. Why doesnt ambulance utilise it more if they expect to be late. costs hardly anything and lets face it most people would love to help. we need a system in place urgently while we are in crisis but should not be an excuse to rely on volunteers and not to fix it. hope that was not poltical
I called 999 after 2 hours of high HR (205bpm), chest pain, neck pain and shoulder pain, sweating and breathless. They would not send ambulance or first responder but said a clinician would call within an hour. My wife got back from work and drove me to hospital. I was taken straight through to resus. Now waiting for mitral valve repair and bisoprolol has pretty much stopped the SVT episodes.
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Sorry to say the NHS let me down once again 
Calling an ambulance...
Recently diagnosed with AF 
