This is Care Opinion [siteRegion]. Did you want Care Opinion [usersRegionBasedOnIP]?
Care Opinion

Lack of ambulances

Posted By Floorman

"Lack of ambulances"

About: South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust / Emergency ambulance

(as the patient),

I live within the area covered by the Royal United hospital, Bath.

Recently, one night at about 11pm I fell within my home and it appeared that at least I had dislocated my left shoulder with a possible fracture. I was unable to get off the floor. We called 999 and waited. The operators assured us that things were very busy.

At about 3am a paramedic came, did what he could and decided that an ambulance was necessary. Much further delay and finally one was found at Chippenham on its break. By now my condition had been upgraded from P2 to P1. This should have resulted in a blues and twos run taking about 15 minutes. They arrived about 4.50am and from then on all was well including the hospital work. My shoulder damage was diagnosed as a dislocation, attended to and I was home again by 4.20pm.

The paramedic said that I should write this because he understood that some ambulance services were laid off about 1am. On arrival at A. and E they were not very busy at all.

More about:
Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Sara Coburn, Patient Engagement Manager, Governance, South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust 8 years ago
Sara Coburn
Patient Engagement Manager, Governance,
South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust

Submitted on 04/01/2016 at 14:15
Published on Care Opinion at 14:41

Good Afternoon Floorman,

Thank you for taking the time to share your story. I hope you are feeling better now.

I'm sorry to hear that there was a long wait for an ambulance to arrive. It would be difficult for me to comment on the possible reasons for the delay without some more specific information from you. If you would like us to look into the specific events concerning your experience, we would be very happy to do so but we will need some detailed information to enable us to do this. Please may I ask you to contact our Patient Experience Team on either swast.patientexperience@nhs.net or 01392 261 585 and a member of the team will take you through the next steps of the process.

Thank you, again, for taking the time to provide our service with feedback.

Sara

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k