Last night at 5pm my 11 year old daughter was in a lot of pain. Never seen her like this I rang NHS Direct, which were very helpful and informative and they called my local night doctors service as they could hear her on the phone and told them she definately needed to see a doctor.
The night doctor could not see her till 9.40pm, and I was told to give her Calpol to numb the pain and keep her comfortable till my appointment.
By 7pm she was all over the place and she was clearly in more pain and I rang NHS Direct again, explained she could not get to see a doctor till later that evening, and was becoming more and more distressed.
They called the ambulance service, and within 15 minutes the paramedic arrived and saw to her.
He said she was clearly in a state and a lot of pain, and that he would call an ambulance to take her to hospital.
He got on his radio and asked for an ambulance....and then I heard him saying I would have to take them then.
Their were no ambulances available, they had 5 to service 6 large towns over a large area. SHOCKED, I was!!!
He kindly went to his car, moved all his bags and drove my daughter and I to the local hospital.
I asked him a few questions, and without wanting to upset any folk on this forum, he told me some interesting facts about todays medical services which I will not repeat on this forum. As they have been brought up in a previous thread. However, interesting to hear from somebody that works in the profession on how the NHS services funds are being drained so quickly and why they cant cope, and why I couldnt have an ambulance for my sick daughter!!!.
I am happy to say that my daughter is fine, and was treated with kindness and the hospital staff who were under pressure from overflowing waiting rooms were fab.
Glad to hear your daughter is fine and well done to the paramedic who did such a grand job.
Lorna
Could I suggest something, nhs staff do not get the praise they deserve for the hard work they do, if you write a nice letter to the hospital that he works in, he will be praised for it and it goes in his file which could help him for further promotions.
Linda we think alike :) I have already done that :) It went in the post this morning!!
Brilliant, its really nice when someone goes that extra mile to say thank you. I am going to be working for the nhs as bank staff soon, and alot of people I know work there, and it really makes there day when someone shows them how hard they work.
.....oooh, what a worry for you and dreadful for your poor little girl :'( and I'm pleased to read that things are sorted now.I hope you're both having good days today...whew!
to thanking the staff....you know how ward staff are given boxes of chox by grateful patients & families, on discharge - perhaps you've done it yourself? A few yrs ago I was taken into A&E & was there for a few hrs. Had the most superb and sensitive treatment by all the drs & nurses and, of course, from behind the curtains of my cubicle heard the quite routine abuse they have from the drunks/druggies looking for a doss-down for the night, etc.etc.....no wonder the place is patrolled by police .. >:( A few days later, home & on my feet again, I revisited A&E with a large THANK YOU card and a couple of boxes of Cadburys Best for the staff. I fully appreciated shift work & wanted to give enough chox for everyone :) And you know what? They'd NEVER had a card or a box of chox given to them....hands up & be honest...how many of you, having gone through A&E as the first point of call, have returned to thank them afterwards? And if you've never thought of it before...consider it, please?
Springbok, sorry to hear about your troubled evening but glad that your daughter is now ok (what was the problem in the end?)
A little off topic but there's a great blog from a london ambulance driver called Random Acts of Reality which the author updates every day with his daily goings on. It's really interesting (and addictive!) It can be really funny, sometimes sad, sometimes political etc but always a great read. I first found it via his book Blood, Sweat & Tea (which I couldn't put down lol) http://randomreality.blogware.com/
suspected appendicitus, but turned out to be a kidney infection. Shes more comfortable now, on antibiotics and painkillers.
She did give me a scare though, as she is never ill.
What could you have done if she couldn't have sat in a car.
My son had a sudden pain one year on boxing day, at first I was going to take him in the car but it got worse very quickly and I had to call an ambulance and they came and he was lying on the floor and screamed when they tried to move him so that had to give him gas and air to move him to the ambulance but he couldn't have sat in a car.....we never did find out what it was after lots of tests it went away after about 4 hours. They thought it was a kidney stone at first but couldn't find anything.
Fortunately we have an ambulance and paramedics stationed about 1/4 mile away but that doesn't mean they're always there, it's because there are so many accidents on the A14 near us. The paramedics are funded by donations by the local community. So if you have some like this make sure you support them you might need them someday.
http://www.magpas.net/
Hi Springbokgirlie glad your daughter is alright very scary time for you.
I work full time as a nurse on a stroke unit, and bank shifts on A and E and its true on the ward we get loads of choccies etc but not on a and e.
very often if our medical admissions ward is full a and e is on medical take, this means that any patient admitted by a gp comes through a and e as well as all the accidents and emergencies, it is not uncommon to have ambulance crews looking after their own patients in the corridors of a and e as there is no other room or staff to take over their care at this point, this means less ambulances on the road but there is no other option.
i work as bank in a and e as i want to move there from the stroke unit where i have worked for 3 years but at present there are no vacancies, i can however work as many hours as i want as bank shifts for the same department, this i find totally incredible because a bank shift nurse costs the department more then an employed one simply because they have to cover bank costs it just doesnt make sense, lots of bank staff wont work on a and e because of the type of work it is so if noone covers the shift they work short handed ???
Hope your daughter gets well soon.