"Please don’t let this happen to anyone else"

I popped over to check in on my Dad (mid eighties, suffering from dementia) yesterday.  When I arrived he was on his knees bent double over the seat of a chair.  I did not know how long he had been like that.  He was groaning with pain but could not say exactly what was wrong or how it had happened and could not straighten up.  I tried to help him up but he was screaming with the pain and I had to leave him in that position.

I phoned NHS 24, they stated they would get a GP to make a home visit within 2 hours.  The GP did not turn up - so I phoned them again two hours later. Each time I called, I had to wait on the line for 30 minutes or so.  I then got a phone call from a GP - that sounds like an emergency - we will get paramedics out in an ambulance within the next two hours.  All this time my father was in the same position, on his knees groaning in pain.

As I didn’t know if he would need any kind of medication or an operation etc, I didn’t want to give him anything to eat or drink or any painkillers.  I was reassured that an Ambulance would be with us within 2 hours.  My father was crying with the pain in his back and now in his knees too.

My fathers Carer came in an hour or so later.  Between us we managed to turn him on to his back and lay him face up on the carpet.  The Carer called the Care Company as she was so shocked at his condition, and asked them to make him an immediate priority.  The Carer advised I should now phone 999 and ask for an ambulance.  The phone operator confirmed both the GP and the Care Company had identified this as an emergency on their records.    They confirmed that  an Ambulance should be there within the hour - two hours at the very most.

Another hour later a Glasgow number called to confirm that my father was now a priority and he would be treated as an emergency.  

I called 999 and the Care at Home Service and NHS 24 several times throughout the night - I was continually told they were very busy.  

The last call I made to 999 the operator was extremely rude.  I was upset of course, but was always polite and understanding about how busy they are - at no time was I rude to anyone I spoke to, despite how stressed I felt and how disappointed to continually be given assurances that someone would attend soon.

I was afraid to fall asleep (in a chair) in case I missed the Ambulance.  In the early morning after 6am I started trying to get through again.  My poor father was still on the floor groaning in pain.  I felt so completely helpless, we had been sent from pillar to post with all sorts of promises about when help would arrive.  I could not actually believe this was happening.

Eventually, I called the North Ayrshire Care at Home out of hours service again and they called the Ambulance service.  They called me back to say there would be a change of shift and it would be a priority for the new shift. By now though, I found it very difficult to believe anything I was told.

The Ambulance service finally arrived at around 4 hours later - 18 hours after I had first sought help for my father.  No GP came, no Ambulance came (for 18 hours) and I don’t know what the delay might mean now for my poor father.  The Ambulance staff were brilliant and very shocked at the wait we had experienced.  My father has now been taken to hospital.

I know services are stretched, but this is appalling.  Why was there no check in with the GP to ensure the Ambulance had attended.  At the very least he could have attended and provided some advice to me and administered some pain killing medication, advised about food and drink etc.

I feel so upset and totally disappointed not only in the lack of care and treatment for my father, but the continual assurances that someone would shortly be on their way.  You might make quite different decisions, if you knew the real wait was going to be 18 hours.  

Please don’t let this happen to any other elderly person with dementia.  I don’t know what else I could have done, but cannot help but feel my father deserved so much better.