999 Ambulance Survey
Today we have launched a survey about people's experiences of calling an ambulance in an emergency or if 111 has sent it. Locally and nationally, there are stories of people experiencing delays in the ambulances reaching them and then of delays when reaching hospital of being handed over to Accident and Emergency Department, sometimes with tragic outcomes.
We want to find out what local peoples experiences are and if they are they like the press coverage.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Adult Social Care, Health Integration and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee has called for an urgent review into the delays being experienced with ambulances attending to 999 calls in Stoke-on-Trent. Healthwatch Stoke-on-Trent will be attending this session. We will take the peoples stories of their experiences, their truth, to this meeting so that systems leaders can hear first hand of the peoples accounts of calling for an ambulance and then of their further experiences when arriving at Accident and Emergency.
Healthwatch Stoke-on-Trent encourage people to share their experience of calling for an ambulance for themselves or others by completing the survey.
“We are very lucky in the UK to be able to call for help if we are very poorly and most of us think to call 999 and ask for ambulance for ourselves or someone else. It is very worrying to hear and see stories talking about delays to ambulances arriving and then of delays when arriving at hospital before you are transferred to the Accident and Emergency Department. Some of these stories have tragic consequences. Healthwatch Stoke-on-Trent wants to find out what local peoples’ experiences are and if they are they like the press coverage. Healthwatch Stoke-on-Trent use peoples’ stories to be able to tell people in positions of power the truth about the services that they are responsible for and seek improvements where peoples’ stories show things could be done better. So, please complete our survey so that we can use your voice, your truth, regarding calling ambulances in an emergency.”
“It’s a great opportunity to work with the Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Adult Social Care, Health Integration and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee to enable them to hear first-hand of the peoples’ experiences.”
