I had a bad asthma attack. Rang 999 and used my nebuliser. Paramedic arrived after an hour and advised us there were no ambulances available..so we took ourselves to Pilgrim Hospital in Boston.
Arrived at 6.15pm feeling extremely ill. I finally received a nebuliser and if steroids at 1.am Then admitted for 6 nights with infective asthma.
This is an unacceptable delay in urgent treatment. Has anyone else had similar experience. We cannot accept this as simply "the NHS is in crisis" excuse.
Vivr
That is shocking Ranv56 and needs looking into. Wishing you a speedy recovery. Xxxxx
Thanks sassy59. The hospital has opened an investigation. I emailed mr hunt but he doesn't deal with complaints about the NHS. Staff are battle fatigued and the department cannot cope with the demands. Pilgrim letters are stamped with. "providing excellence in rural healthcare" NOT!
Xx keep well.
Hello Ranv56 .
What a dreadful experience. It must have been dreadfully frightening. I'm so sorry it happened to you. I hope you are recovering from this ordeal. Take care.
Cas xx 🌹
The Pilgrim in Boston has always had lots of problems mostly down to inability to retain staff but there is no excuse for leaving you in that state. Awful and dangerous. I hope you feel better now xx
Isn’t there a better hospital in the area? It would be good to know..
There is Lincoln, which is 50 miles away. The others are basically sub hospitals of Lincoln or Boston. If you live in South Lincolnshire Peterborough is a possibility. I lived in Lincolnshire for forty years and had some very good treatment at Lincoln for quite a long time. North Lincolnshire can offer Scunthorpe or Grimsby. For all the time I lived there the county had trouble getting doctors, teachers and clergy. It is a lovely county but miles from anywhere, especially on the East Coast, like Boston. No motorways, few dual carriageways, and not a brilliant train service. It is to be hoped that the new Medical School will improve things. When I lived near Lincoln the cardiology department improved a hundred percent in the last 30 years, but the lung department is what you would expect from a reasonable District hospital. For higher level cardiology I had to go to Leicester, 50 miles, a friend went to Nottingham for her lung problem, 30 miles, and Hull, about 40 miles, for her oesophageal problem. Sheffield is also about 40 miles. These are the difficulties living in an under resourced rural county a hundred miles from London. Here since we moved to Chepstow area we have so far visited 6 different hospitals, all except Cardiff within 20 miles!
My goodness!! Well it is far for an emergency..very interesting, I see what you mean then, it is true that when I was in Hammersmith and Fulham, there were so many hospitals, although people used to tell me don’t go to the Hammersmith hospital, Charingcross was better. I have waited in my life but never for an ambulance I must say, and they always sent an ambulance doctor separately as well.
LAM patients have to go to Nottingham and that is a trip!!
So sorry you had to go through all this.
I am glad you are in a better area now.
Since I have been in Switzerland you have no choice, you go where the ambulance takes you, where there is a bed I suppose, but they have no thoracic surgeons except in Lausanne my district university hospital or Geneva. So it is where they usually take lung disease patients.
Today I saw an helicopter but it didn’t land, probably had to go further, the weather has changed.
Take good care x
Fran
Mind you we have to negotiate the NHS England and NHS Wales, which is a task on its own! Both ok but don't communicate and actually it is difficult to get an ambulance where you would like to go! If you get a Welsh ambulance you go to a Welsh hospital and if an English one then an English hospital. So much like Switzerland really I suppose. I have such an unusual medical history that nobody is quite sure what to do with me. Have you had your cataract surgery yet? I am still waiting for mine as the anaesthetist is being cautious. I had a copy of the cardiologist's (Bristol) letter, so now I have to find out what the (Welsh) gp is going to do about my drugs and the Welsh anaesthetist. I have never phoned hospitals and doctors so much. I think the River Wye is an iron curtain really.
😃 I can see you have borders to cross!
Yes I have had the first eye done, not very happy with it all but patiently waiting for better 😉 the second eye is Tuesday.
Well it is a local anaesthetic..Dad had a triple bypass and stents he had a local. First they put drops in to desensitise the eye then while you don’t see he injects the eye..I didn’t feel a thing.
But it isn’t a pleasant op..like any op! I hope it will be successful and I can see properly!!
Good luck xx
Thanks Fran.
What a fiasco! I'm feeling better now. I've been in touch with our MP and the hospital has opened an investigation. I'm going to do as much as I can to bring about change.
I had a letter from Pilgrim Hospital, Boston...Headed with
"Providing excellence in rural healthcare"
Discuss!! Stay well. Xx
Thanks for your support. I'm going to contact my MP. It's time to admit...The king isn't wearing any clothes.
How awful for you and thank goodness you have recovered now. I think this is the state in this country now. I had a burglary and the burglar could have still been there and I was too scared to check. I dialled 999 and it took the police 4 1/2 hours to get here even though I told them there were only 2 elderly women here. I had to check the flat myself.
This country is going to the dogs and fast. Goodness knows how many people must suffer and even die before we get proper services back again, if we ever do. x
Absollutely unacceptable.
Never had a delay re having a paramedic there, but did have paramedics get me into an abulance and sorted me out before setting off. We went 3 houses and the ambulance conked out. Had to wait an hour for another amulance to come from another city which is close by. The crew were furious as they had been dealing with a drunk who had nothing wrong with him. He took lots of their time as he wouldn’t get up for the young woman. In the end her colleague picked him up and told him to go forth and multiply. They were furious but cool as they usually are. Difficult job.
Mabe a complaint would be in order and the involvement of an MP as they need to know just how cuts to funding effects genuinely sick people like yourself and the difficulties the paramedics face.
Hope you feel better now.
Cx
Just read your reply re Hunt - ‘he doesn’t deal with complaints about the NHS’ - unbelievable response. I wonder if he would say that had a journalist questioned him on the subject!
Mmm I wonder!
Thanks for you support. I've also informed the CCG and CQC.
Keep well xx
Glad this is an unlocked post. Are there any journalists out there who would like to ask that question of Mr Hunt?
Awful! Poor you!! It is a very long wait indeed. Unbelievable the triage nurse didn’t put you as an urgent patient. The problem is they take ambulances first of course and that sounded like a busy night as you couldn’t get one.
Well if you can’t accept it you could tell your MP, the papers, the radio, the BBC..
The NHS staff are doing everything they can on a tight budget.
It is happening everywhere unfortunately..but patients are reporting and speaking up..
I see on this week’s Radio Times, there is a documentary on BBC2 called Hospital about the NHS crisis.
Hope you are starting to feel better, take good care of yourself.
We will be thinking of you, let us know how you are getting on.
Doesn't help that the ambulance HQ is in Northampton!
Thank you so much for your support. I am waiting for the result of the hospital inquiry. I've been I touch with my MP too. We just cannot accept this dangerous situation any longer.
I'm feeling much better now thanks and have just returned to work.
Stay well. Xx
Your treatment was unacceptable, but unfortunately becoming the norm in many areas I sometimes watch tv documentaries on the ambulance service in various parts of the uk, and it amazes me how much time is given to people who need help because of self inflicted issues ie drinking and taking drugs, while people who are having to cope with chronic illnesses are made to wait a long time for support. Sorry for the rant!
Glad you’re feeling a bit better.
.....and there is no one more unhappy about this than the paramedics themselves. My husband worked for the ambulance service until he retired a couple of years ago and this has been an ongoing problem for many years. They are sick of being called out night after night to the same people who it has to be mentioned are sometimes aggressive because of the alcohol or drugs and don't recognize help when they are lucky to be able to get it
Thanks Annie,
The paramedics are caught between a rock and share place. They must be extremely frustrated. I have been in touch with our MP and the hospital is holding an investigation. We cannot accept this mess. I will do everything I can to bring about change.
Thanks to your husband and colleagues for everything they do. Xx
We had an unfortunate incident outside our house about three weeks ago just as the really cold weather was setting in. A lady tripped on the kerb and went sprawling into the road, banging her head on the concrete. Emergency services were called. My husband refused to let anyone move her even though she was blocking the traffic as he could see she was lying in an awkward position ie hip damage (he was right) besides being semi-concious. Made her comfortable as possible and duvet to try to keep her warm. Half an hour later four police cars turned up to deal with traffic, not a busy road and only needed one to stop cars coming down road from the turning off! Seven policemen, one a woman on her own in her car, she was the first to arrive and she was left to get on with it! Despite her calls and those of the general public no first responder responded! and the ambulance did not arrive for another hour and forty minutes. Meanwhile this poor woman was left lying on cold ground with a head injury and a broken hip. The ambulance station is half a mile from our house! But the ambulances are rarely at their stations anymore, they are situated at different locations albeit supermarket parking so near to toilets etc, side of the road in the hope that when calls come in they could be nearer to the incidents. This was done in answer to the ridiculously unrealistic time of eight minute targets to get to an incident irrespective of how far away it is, set by unrealistic government officials who have no idea of what it is to do this job.
County ambulance services have been amalgamated so ambulances may have to go longer distances, still within the eight minutes out of county. Twelve Hour shifts turn Into fourteen /fifteen hours because They are stuck in long queues at A & E's to offload patients. They have to wait to do the handover. They never know if they are going to get a hot meal or not, the days of sitting in the off duty room waiting a call out has been long gone for many years. They are losing experienced staff all the time because they can't keep up the pressure that is put on them. As well as doing a life-saving job they spend many hours driving as well, another safety aspect that doesn't seem to be recognized by the powers to be! And as for the pay well.......
We have a fire station next door to the ambulance station that is no longer manned 24 hourly and has been amalgamated with another county two counties away! Who in their right mind thought that one up?! We have a brand new police station in our town that was built about 15 or more years ago, it was open for about a year and then closed and this is the county town. When Hypercat said this country was going to the dogs, she was right but this isn't recent. This has been ongoing for too many years now regardless of who was in power, short term answers for long term problems. God knows what our grandchildren are going to be left with and this is no reference to Brexit! What this country is like now has nothing to do with referendum results however much some may like to say or believe!
My rant is now over!
Have a good Sunday one and all!
Just waiting to go to theatre
Help with Bronchiectasis flare up.
Saw out of Hours GP yesterday. 29m
ambulanced to A&E
How Long is the Waiting List for Spirometry?
