Letter: I Feel Ambulance Service Needs Major Surgery

Published on: 15 Mar, 2019
Updated on: 15 Mar, 2019

A South East Coast Ambulance Service operator. Photo SECAmb

From Wayne Smith

In response to: Surrey Midwives Assisting at Emergency Call Centres

Mathew Parris says it’s not typical to wait four hours for an ambulance but I’ve known two recent occasions where SECAmb response has been woeful.

The first incident: a 78-year-old neighbour fell at the local shops and broke both arms. She was on the ground in the cold and rain for nearly 90 minutes before an ambulance arrived.

Her husband said this was last autumn in Napier Gardens, near the back of Boxgrove Park Shops. Not only had she broken both arms, she had an injured face. Her husband is still appalled that when he made the 999 call, he was told not to call back again.

The second incident (Horseshoe Lane West, Merrow): a 92-year-old neighbour fell outside at 4.30pm shortly before Christmas. An ambulance was called at 5pm when she was found. It was a freezing evening and we were unable to move her. After six calls to 999, with the situation deteriorating, the ambulance finally arrived at 9.30pm. Almost unbelievably, the ambulance came from Chichester.

The initial reply on 999 said the ambulance should arrive within two hours. That time came and went and we called again.

Having been told to call back if the situation changed, after three hours our neighbour started to vomit a little so I took that as my cue to make another call. SECAmb only then upgraded it to a “blue light”.

We eventually saw an ambulance, but it stopped about 50 yards away. My other neighbour went to investigate and found the ambulance crew dealing with a group of teenage lads, one of whom had collapsed just as they’d come along and they said they couldn’t ignore it (we think drink was involved).

More time passed and after some pleading, one of the crew came to check on our neighbour and made a radio call for another ambulance for her.

Approximately 30 minutes later, the other ambulance arrived and stopped nearby but the crew just sat in the cab. Again, my assisting neighbour spoke to them and they didn’t know anything about a casualty. They said they were just backup for the other ambulance.

At that point, they finally started to deal with the situation. Strangely, once our elderly neighbour was in the ambulance it must have been a further hour before they actually set off to the RSCH.

Our neighbour was eventually found to have a broken hip and, fortunately, is now making a good recovery at home.

It’s no wonder that SECAmb “requires improvement”. I feel they need major surgery.

The Guildford Dragon sent Mr Smith’s letter to the South East Coast Ambulance Service for comment. A spokesperson said: “I have checked with our complaints team and while we have been contacted by a member of the public regarding the Boxgrove Lane incident and responded to this complaint in full, we have not been contacted in relation to a call to Horseshoe Lane West.

“…using the details provided for this incident, I have not been able to locate this on our log. We would invite Mr _______ to contact us directly to discuss his concerns and we are very sorry to hear of his experience.

“Here is a link which outlines our response time performance targets – http://www.secamb.nhs.uk/about_us/our_performance/response_time_targets.aspx

“We take any concerns raised seriously and would invite anyone who wishes to raise a concern to contact us directly so we can investigate them in detail. We have been contacted regarding the call to Boxgrove Lane and have responded to this complaint in detail.

“We are very sorry when it takes us longer than we would expect to respond to a call. All our calls are categorised into one of four categories based on information provided by the caller.

“We would aim to respond to Category 3 calls within two hours. When we are facing very high demand there are times when we can take longer than normal to reach patients who are not in a life-threatening condition.

“We appreciate that this means some patients are waiting longer than both we and they would like. We are working hard to improve our response to less seriously ill and injured patients including introducing vehicles specifically aimed at responding to this type of call.”

Responses to Letter: I Feel Ambulance Service Needs Major Surgery

Jennie Antliff Reply

March 16, 2019 at 9:37 pm

My own experience is totally opposite to this. I collapsed at home, an ambulance with three crew members arrived very quickly and after I was stabilised I was taken to RSCH and later admitted for observation and care.

The ambulance staff were very caring and did everything they could to make sure I was well looked after. There is good and bad performance in all professions. In my case it was very good.
Wayne Smith Reply

March 17, 2019 at 8:23 pm

Sadly, I’m not surprised by the response from SECAmb who classify an elderly person that has fallen, exposed to the elements, with broken bones as only “Urgent (Category 3)”.

Even if not an emergency (by their classification) falls can often be life-changing. There is something deeply wrong with a system and our society that has allowed people to be reduced to cells on a spreadsheet or blips on a graph. Where is the compassion, the respect? What about treating people with dignity?