Mother is forced to wait nine hours for ambulance after four-year-old son breaks his wrist as paramedics suggest she pays for a £80 taxi instead

A mother claims it took nine hours to get an ambulance after her four-year-old son broke his wrist when he fell from a slide.

Jayne Wright took her two children to a playground near their home in Maldon, Essex, when her youngest, Sidney, fell off an 8ft slide.

After calling 111 for an ambulance at 8.30pm as her child was screaming in pain, she said it took three hours for a call back and then had to wait until 12.34am to be told to book a taxi - which would cost her £80.

An ambulance finally arrived at 5.20am but Jayne said the paramedics were 'rude' and made it clear it was 'the end of their shift'

Jayne, who will start training to be a paramedic herself this year, said Sidney fell when he was playing with his older brother during the incident last week.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6967111/Mother-forced-wait-nine-hours-ambulance-four-year-old-son-breaks-wrist.html


The cheek of this mother. This does not warrant an ambulance. Pay the £80 for a taxi or find a friend to drive them to the hospital.
That ambulance could have cost someone their life, having to come to her house, because she was too tight fisted and selfish to pay herself to take her son to the hospital.

My daughter fell off her bike aged about 6 and hurt her arm, everything worked but it was painful for her. We didn't consider an ambulance, luckily my OH was contactable and came home and drove her to the A & E if he hadn't been available it would have been a taxi. Turned out she had broken her ulna.

Vintage wrote:My daughter fell off her bike aged about 6 and hurt her arm, everything worked but it was painful for her. We didn't consider an ambulance, luckily my OH was contactable and came home and drove her to the A & E if he hadn't been available it would have been a taxi. Turned out she had broken her ulna.

You did the right thing Vintage. I applaud also that you put you daughter first and not a view of money as this parent did.
Ambulances are for real emergencies. The above story was not a real emergency

I presume she took those photos of the little kid and gave them to the DM. Why do people do that? It all makes me a bit sick.

It's difficult to know when to call an ambulance really. We've had a couple occasions at work when we've called one. It turned out that the situations weren't serious, but at the time you don't know if a situation is life-threatening or not.

It does seem that this lady knew the lad had hurt his arm, and she just wanted an ambulance to save money, so that's different.

I don't like it when people complain about the ambulance service - they do the best they can and they're always marvellous IMO.

I called 111 once, and was advised to go to an emergency GP, but I got a taxi because I couldn't drive. It cost me quite a lot, but that's just what you have to do.

My friends son is an ambulance paramedic, some of the ridiculous call outs he has to attend to would make you sick.

I am going back 10 years but my mum waited in hospital for one and a half days for an ambulance to take her to the nursing home. She was unable to walk or even sit up....so there was no other way she could be moved.
When it arrived the driver told me to put in a complaint because they had been particularly slack over the last few days and someone could have picked us up 24 hours earlier.

Sometimes lack of communication seems to be a problem.

I agree that the mom was being silly, but had I done that here there would have been an ambulance at my house in about 5 to 10 minutes.

Yes, there's no shortage of ambulances here in the US, and the paramedic role is amply filled by nurses-in-training.

But in this case, a broken wrist? I mean, we drive birthing mothers to the hospital. What's so 'emergency' about a broken wrist?

If they live an £80 ride away from hospital, and have no vehicle, they ought to move closer to a hospital ... particularly, as they have children.

Original Quill wrote:Yes, there's no shortage of ambulances here in the US, and the paramedic role is amply filled by nurses-in-training.

But in this case, a broken wrist?  I mean, we drive birthing mothers to the hospital.  What's so 'emergency' about a broken wrist?

If they live an £80 ride away from hospital, and have no vehicle, they ought to move closer to a hospital ... particularly, as they have children.

Hospitals have been closed down in many areas, maybe there was a local one once.
Moving house, especially if you are skint can be impossible for a young family.

Our hospital is nearly on the doorstep, for now anyway, dept are shutting at an alarming rate, its 10 mins by car and still cost me almost £20 each way. Ours is a fairly new hospital and the maternity dept is about to close, the children's dept has closed along with others, its supposed to be a teaching hospital I can't see there's much left to teach with. The A&E is in danger of closing and we are expected to go to a hospital with A & E which is an hour away by car on a good day, if you have to use public transport for visiting its 4 bus changes, by patient transport you'll probably need bed and breakfast. There is a nearer A & E about 20 mins away which is already swamped but everyone who can get themselves there will go to that with the results that entails.
I wish we could get rid of the Tories but the only alternate is worse in my view.

Vintage wrote:Our hospital is nearly on the doorstep, for now anyway, dept are shutting at an alarming rate, its 10 mins by car and still cost me almost £20 each way. Ours is a fairly new hospital and the maternity dept is about to close, the children's dept has closed along with others, its supposed to be a teaching hospital I can't see there's much left to teach with. The A&E is in danger of closing and we are expected to go to a hospital with A & E which is an hour away by car on a good day, if you have to use public transport for visiting its 4 bus changes, by patient transport you'll probably need bed and breakfast. There is a nearer A & E about 20 mins away which is already swamped but everyone who can get themselves there will go to that with the results that entails.
I wish we could get rid of the Tories but the only alternate is worse in my view.

I think millions of people share that view.

We have a local A&E....about 10 minutes by car, the staff there just cant cope and there is often a wait of over 8 hours to be seen. Ambulances queue up outside for hours to check people in, they cant move on till the patient has been initially seen....it's a huge waste of paramedic time.

We also had a drop in centre where minor ailments could be treated within a couple of hours. It worked really well, so at huge expense a big new building was erected where the drop in centre was moved to, the new centre also took overspill from the local hospital for certain clinics.

After 4 years that now too has been closed.

I really don't understand the thinking by the government in this country, if there are cuts to be made it should be else where, at least until we are in a better position. We keep giving money to India for instance, they don't want it. We seem to spend enormous amounts on aid which doesn't seem to have any long term benefit for the people we are supposed to be helping.
Surely the education, health and security of the people of this country should come first that's why the government is there I thought. Perhaps we should begin with the mps who were given grants to buy homes in London then sold them at a profit should give the money back to the tax payers.

Maldon to Basildon is 20 miles by road. About £30- £40 by taxi.
Then phone a friend for a return trip.

Syl wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Yes, there's no shortage of ambulances here in the US, and the paramedic role is amply filled by nurses-in-training.

But in this case, a broken wrist?  I mean, we drive birthing mothers to the hospital.  What's so 'emergency' about a broken wrist?

If they live an £80 ride away from hospital, and have no vehicle, they ought to move closer to a hospital ... particularly, as they have children.

Hospitals have been closed down in many areas, maybe there was a local one once.
Moving house, especially if you are skint can be impossible for a young family.

As I've said elsewhere, I will never understand Tories and their passion for austerity. Cutting essential services is going back to the middle ages.

But--meh--that's the definition of 'conservative', innit?

Andy wrote:Maldon to Basildon is 20 miles by road. About £30- £40 by taxi.
Then phone a friend for a return trip.

I hate to point out the obvious, but some people just dont have £30 or £40 spare....thats why there are a record number of people using food banks.