Refused an ambulance on a 999 call

[lightwolfe]

Hi all
My wife is 36 weeks pregnant and type 1 diabetic. shes had an infection for the past few days and last night had keytones of 2.1 so being the good diabetic we took her to the on call doctor. all he suggested was to drink plenty and to rest......
this morning keytones are 3.8 we spoke to her DSN this morning who said she needs to be hospitalized and put on a drip immediately.
so as this is now an emergency (and in my opinion was last night) i dialed 999 for an ambulance gave all the details of the address the 999 operator asked to speak to my wife so i passed the phone over.
he said its not an emergency so an ambulance wouldnt be sent and NHS direct would call back to arrange transport.........

has anyone else had this issue? did i jump the gun with the 999 call?

 

[izzzi]

she needs to be and put on a drip immediately.

I believe this would warrant a 999 call for a ambulance, Probably most of the ambulance staff were on their annual sick leave.

There is not a lot you can do in this current climate of bad service which is normally blamed on the cost.

A complain letter to your MP may help.

Hope your wife is now keeping well and everything is good for you and your family.

Roy.

 

[dawnmc]

Sorry if I'm being blunt, but couldn't you have got her there yourself or get a taxi. 999 calls are for people who really really are in trouble.
I do hope your wife is ok and being seen to.

 

[BioHaZarD]

That's not great, if you phone an ambulance it should come, however could your wife move and talk etc? I would have jumped in the car and go to A & E, would have go their quicker than the ambulance to your place.

I hope she is ok

 

[bethan90]

If your wife was able to mobilise and talk then they would not class her as a priority over those people having heart attacks and cardiac arrests, so therefore it would have been quicker for you to take her in yourself anyway.

The doctor was probably being a bit ignorant of the fact that she is a diabetic with ketones, as it's v common (and not dangerous) for pregnant women to have a few ketones in their urine and the advice is to hydrate.

 

[lightwolfe]

Sorry if I'm being blunt, but couldn't you have got her there yourself or get a taxi. 999 calls are for people who really really are in trouble.
I do hope your wife is ok and being seen to.

ok my wife is heavily pregnant and suffers for severe SPD (basically unless she uses crutches and my support she can not walk) we have a 4 year old and a almost 2 year old so i cant just leave them at home.
we do not have a car as we had to get rid of it due to cost.
a taxi on average is £5-7 per trip bearing in mind that in 3 days this is the 3rd time she has had to go to hospital requiring a taxi each way so we are literally running on an empty bank account.
as for keytones your probably not aware as much as type 1's what they are but they can result in coma and sever complications extremely rapidly as keytonacidosis is where your blood turns acidic you also start to vomit which leaves you dehydrated magnifying the original issue)
as for ambulances that are for people really in trouble i agree and when shes hypo and unconscious i will treat her with glucagon first and only call medics when i cant bring her round. infact in 10 years i have only needed to call 999 3 times including this. i would love to know though why people that have drunk too much at the weekend as an example are really in trouble....

and as an update to show just how good the NHS is my wife was not offered a drink of water in A&E (while in the cubical) and was not checked on. if her DNS had not called the A&E department she would have been in a coma about now as she was starting to lapse in to unconsciousness when they went in to talk to her.

 

[lightwolfe]

If your wife was able to mobilise and talk then they would not class her as a priority over those people having heart attacks and cardiac arrests, so therefore it would have been quicker for you to take her in yourself anyway.

The doctor was probably being a bit ignorant of the fact that she is a diabetic with ketones, as it's v common (and not dangerous) for pregnant women to have a few ketones in their urine and the advice is to hydrate.

first of all Bethan90 we spoke to her DSN this morning who advised the urgent treatment so id love to know how a specialist in the field was being ignorant.
as for keytones not being dangerous id love to know what idiot told you that. they are dangerous at any point to a diabetic at high levels.
i would suggest asking your DNS if he/she can explain to you what would happen if you had DKA for an extended period.

 

[JConnor]

I had ketones for days before my diagnosis and was 27 weeks pregnant at the time. The first urine test after diagnosis showed 4+ ketones and the ward started buzzing other patients being told there was a medical emergancy and 4 doctors plus several midwifes around the bed (at the time didnt know about DKA and had ketones for days before so found the whole situation comical)
Ketone in pregnancy is just as serious for a diabetic as out of pregnancy (actually more serious) as there is 2 lifes on the line. The doctors left a treatment chart lying around when i was treated and if was DKA 80% fatality for baby.
Hope everything is ok and your wife is now getting the treatment she needs, Also just so you know my baby was born at 36 weeks perfectly healthy (tho very chubby) so dont worry to much if they decide the pregnancy as gone as far as they want it to

 

[shop]

Sorry to hear that your wife has been so poorly. Hope she and the baby are now OK

Lucy xxx

 

[Anonymous]

Hope all is well for you all....Must have been a nightmare trying to get the help your wife needed...

sharon xx

 

[BioHaZarD]

Sorry if I'm being blunt, but couldn't you have got her there yourself or get a taxi. 999 calls are for people who really really are in trouble.
I do hope your wife is ok and being seen to.

ok my wife is heavily pregnant and suffers for severe SPD (basically unless she uses crutches and my support she can not walk) we have a 4 year old and a almost 2 year old so i cant just leave them at home.
we do not have a car as we had to get rid of it due to cost.
a taxi on average is £5-7 per trip bearing in mind that in 3 days this is the 3rd time she has had to go to hospital requiring a taxi each way so we are literally running on an empty bank account.
as for keytones your probably not aware as much as type 1's what they are but they can result in coma and sever complications extremely rapidly as keytonacidosis is where your blood turns acidic you also start to vomit which leaves you dehydrated magnifying the original issue)
as for ambulances that are for people really in trouble i agree and when shes hypo and unconscious i will treat her with glucagon first and only call medics when i cant bring her round. infact in 10 years i have only needed to call 999 3 times including this. i would love to know though why people that have drunk too much at the weekend as an example are really in trouble....

and as an update to show just how good the NHS is my wife was not offered a drink of water in A&E (while in the cubical) and was not checked on. if her DNS had not called the A&E department she would have been in a coma about now as she was starting to lapse in to unconsciousness when they went in to talk to her.

In that case yes they probably should have come.

 

[Indy51]

Absolutely horrendous treatment. I hope your wife is feeling better now?

I seem to recall seeing a post somewhere on here (but do you think I can find it now), I think it was by GraceK, about the procedures involved in lodging a complaint. I think this failure should be reported to the appropriate authorities.

Not being British, I don't know what the correct procedures are, but someone on this forum is bound to know.

I did find this online, assuming it's the NHS you would lodge the complaint with?:

http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rights ... aints.aspx

 

[lucylocket61]

LIghtwolfe

You have mentioned your financial circumstances. Can you claim any Tax Credits or Child Tax credit? If so, the hospital will refund your essential costs of getting to and from the hospital. You need to ask the reception staff to give you a signed form after attending A & E.

The Tax Credit people, if you get any, will give you a card to get free prescriptions for the whole family, and that is the card you show to the Hospital office to claim back the money.

It might also be worth going to your surgery, explaining your situation to the practice manager, and they will be able to offer you advice on this too.

 

[AMBrennan]

That's not great, if you phone an ambulance it should come

Well, no. The person dialling 999 is, by and large, not qualified to tell if a situation requires an ambulance or not.

 

[lightwolfe]

That's not great, if you phone an ambulance it should come

Well, no. The person dialling 999 is, by and large, not qualified to tell if a situation requires an ambulance or not.

and 90% of the time neither is the operator on the other end of the phone.
they use a very similar system to nhs direct to assess if an ambulance should be sent.
just to prove how "informed they are" the last time i had to call an ambulance for her having a hypo after not being ale to bring her around after 2x glucagons and 6 tubes of glucogel and her pump being disabled and her starting to fit.
the operator said to me have you given her any insulin to bring her around........

 

[lightwolfe]

LIghtwolfe

You have mentioned your financial circumstances. Can you claim any Tax Credits or Child Tax credit? If so, the hospital will refund your essential costs of getting to and from the hospital. You need to ask the reception staff to give you a signed form after attending A & E.

The Tax Credit people, if you get any, will give you a card to get free prescriptions for the whole family, and that is the card you show to the Hospital office to claim back the money.

It might also be worth going to your surgery, explaining your situation to the practice manager, and they will be able to offer you advice on this too.

we do get tax credits but not at a high enough level to get prescriptions ect. on paper my wife earns just over the threshold although in the last tax year we earnt as a 2 adult 2 kid family about 13k that was taxable

 

[dawnmc]

Didn't have the full picture before lightwolfe, sorry to hear of your predicament. Are you aware though that diabetics get free prescriptions?

 

[lightwolfe]

yes and if it wasn't for that she would more than likely not be here :/ at the moment she has to change her infusion set for her pump every 2 days (average fill of about 200-250 units) and has to test her sugars a stupid amount of time (over 300 tests a month). on the plus side though im never short of a sieve

 

[noblehead]

Hope they get your good lady sorted lightwolfe and best wishes for the remainder of the pregnancy.

 

[bethan90]

I know very well what DKA is thank you lightwolfe. I meant the GP was probably being ignorant when he said to keep her hydrated, not the DSN.
As I said it is common for pregnant women to flush out ketones, so the GP was overlooking the fact that she was diabetic, which is bad care of course. I don't know why you responded to me so aggressively!!
I hope your wife is doing ok now.