[John]

One of our neighbours rang to tell us the chap next door had died. He had a heart attack. Being his second attack he knew to ring for an ambulance immediately. 5 hours later they arrived. The hospital is 25 minutes away from us - and that's without a blue light to speed things up.
Something is awfully wrong in Wales - chap on the news was hit by a car and the ambulance took six hours. Stroke victim waited even longer.
The system is broken. I know rural ambulance provision is difficult but this is just crazy. The Welsh NHS like the English NHS has incredibly dedicated doctors and nurses but the systemic failings need sorting. People don't want apologies and excuses, they want a working system.

[perris]

my advice to anyone in an emergency situation these days is to just get to hospital however you can as fast as you can. The risks can't be worse than waiting for an ambulance.

[mumofstig]

That's sad about the neighbour, and the service 

[John]

That's sad about the neighbour, and the service 

It's actually scary - that could have been Val or me.
The ambulance people blame the hospitals as they queue up to discharge patients to A&E. A&E blame the wards as they can't clear patients. The wards blame social care failings as they can't discharge 'bed blockers'.
That's why I say the system itself is patently failing. This was getting bad before Covid and now it's worse - to the great relief of politicians who can blame Covid for all problems.

[Paul Plots]

Sorry to hear that dreadfully sad news...

I have had a similar experience (but nowhere near as serious or tragic)... a neighbour fell from his ladder. His wife needed help. I stopped the bleeding, checked that he was conscious but would not attempt to move him as he was laying on the ladder on his back. The back of his head had received injury but the blood flow was stemmed.

Emergency services stated ambulance would be between 2 and four hours... I phoned back and again described the chaps condition this time mentioning concussion and lack of clear reasoned responses as well as extreme "sleepiness" as I couldn't keep him awake. (No one, including the chap who had fallen had any idea what caused the incident..)

Ambulance arrived after 2 and a half hours. Our nearest hospital is 30 minutes away. Our main hospital (for A&E) is 6 miles away. The ambulance station (was until it was closed) 30 minutes walk away.

Fortunately the neighbour was ok -discharged within 3 days but back  for ongoing checks.

So sad that our over-stretched nhs staff have to battle on a daily basis against "cost saving" and "rationalisation" measures because there is insufficient funding and massive waste...

There but for the grace of god goes any of us who need urgent help and aren't fit enough to walk / cycle or bus to A&E.

[Yorkie]

What a shock - I read in the last day or so that some people are choosing not to go to A&E because of the issues there.  I also read about worst case scenarios of a few people waiting in ambulances outside A&E for double-figure number of hours.

It's a perfect storm of reductions in medical and social care employees (Brexit didn't help, with many European employees choosing to leave), reductions in available medical and social care employees (Covid rates very high), reductions in social care beds, and very high numbers of Covid-positive patients in hospitals (it's the highest it's ever been here) - meaning that other patients can't be seen.

How awful for your neighbour while he waited. 

[GraciesGran]

Son in law is a paramedic and reckons he spends at least 50% of each shift sitting outside A&E waiting for patients to be admitted.

[John]

Remembering that NHS Wales is run by the devolved administration but seems to have the same problems as England, they really need to take a holistic approach. Ambulances hanging around waiting is not efficient. Budgets are limited so we should make best use of the resources available.
 

[Lardman]

The NHS in general has become ridiculously overly bloated and overly complex. I'm of the opinion anyone not covered in a bodily fluid by the end of the day needs to have their position reviewed. Too many people with clipboards doing busy work or having meetings to talk about doing busy work whilst accruing pension years - the pyramid is upside down.

[snowdrops]

How very sad & awful for your neighbour & family & friends. Sadly there have been news coverage of this type of incident quite a bit recently 

The NHS in general has become ridiculously overly bloated and overly complex. I'm of the opinion anyone not covered in a bodily fluid by the end of the day needs to have their position reviewed. Too many people with clipboards doing busy work or having meetings to talk about doing busy work whilst accruing pension years - the pyramid is upside down.

And it has been so for a rather long time.
I finished my career with 12 years in the NHS, loved the job I was interviewed & employed  to do, but the last couple of years before I was able to take early retirement was a joke, every week we had different directives to tell us how to do this, that or the other. I was a client facing practitioner (fancy name for  seeing patients) but better than the non qualified nurse that appeared on my payslips at one point!! I was heard to say on more than one occasion  they’ll only be happy when we don’t actually see anyone (this was pre covid) didn’t realise it was a prophecy that was to come true for many staff& patients.
As for the pyramid standing on its point it was known & talked about when I started & that was nearly 20years ago as I’m sure anyone who’s ever worked for the NHS can attest.
On the other hand, when it works well it is brilliant but it misused by as many patients & staff. Just because it is “free” ( it isn’t we all know we pay for it) it gets abused and people who don’t try to keep themselves healthy have a lot to answer for, & don’t get me started on ‘accidents’ whilst drunk!

[mrs bouquet]

Sorry to hear about your neighbour John.     The problem isn't only with the hospitals and ambulances.  Yesterday I tried to ring the doctors.    the day before I tried and was 44th in the queue, I gave up.   They will not accept ringing me back when first in the queue because I have Sky Talkshield !     Yesterday I was 21st in line so I held on only to be told that there were no appointments available at all.  More are released on a daily basis at 10am and it seems people wait outside to go in and book.   How I will ever get to see any doc, i don't know,  but I could be dead by then !!!  Mrs Bouquet

[jezza]

Sorry to hear of the sad loss,my mum was taken I'll in December the doctor booked an ambulance at 11am with possible 4 hour wait  it came at 7.55 pm,fortunately she was taken straight to A+E    jezza

[John]

The GP surgery here says to ring at 8am for an appointment. And ring, and ring and ring until they answer to say 'try again tomorrow' It's pathetic.

[mumofstig]

The GP surgery here says to ring at 8am for an appointment. And ring, and ring and ring until they answer to say 'try again tomorrow' It's pathetic.

Same thing here. Some 111 centres can book you an appointment, or tell the practice that you need to have one. I had to do that recently in order to get seen, receptionist didn't think I needed one, 111 disagreed 

[jezza]

Hello if I want an appointment for my mum I go to the surgery and confront the receptionist, I usually get an appointment the same day or next day it might not be at the local surgery but one in the group practice, got a phone call Friday morning could she be at local surgery for blood test at 9.25 am Monday morning as some one had cancelled ,jezza