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The ambulance service in France has always been private. It is v efficient using high speed estate cars rather than small trucks.
Private ambulances are the norm in the EU. Make sure you have yr E111 card with you as otherwise you may get a big bill!
UKGOV refuses to accept reality re many key issues and makes it worse by telling flat lies eg that privatisation will improve matters. The NHS is top of the list.
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You and the other lady did well. Many would have assumed he was 'only' drunk or a druggie and walked on by.
Yes, the ambulance service is under pressure, but in this case they did try to triage and prioritise by phone. Far better to do that than respond than leave say an immediate life threatening injured person for longer.
MiL fell in the street earlier this year. No ones sure if she fell and knocked herself out or blacked out and fell. At 92, no one dared move her in case she'd broken bones. Despite calling an ambulance, none had arrived after 90 mins. At that point a passing off duty A&E Consultant checked her over and said she was safe to move. She was taken to A&E in her daughters car to have the head injury checked out. Had that doctor not stopped, she could have ended up with hyperthermia.
I'm not saying she'd have been a priority over the the person you'd come across, but it illustrates the descions the Ambulance service have to make.
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The South East Ambulance service has been privatised :-(
It calls itself 'The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust', but has a £63.5 million contract.
They've left patients who phone for an ambulance on 'hold' for 45 minutes - so you were lucky!!
Problem with privatisation is that they want to make a profit, so the fewer staff an ambulances they have to send out - the more profit they make :-(
As for Mental Health services within the NHS - funding has been cut by the Government for the third year running.
Seems to me, their attitude is, 'If it can't be seen - why bother funding it'?
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Yesterday I went to a local seaside town for a day out with a friend, her two young children (11 and 9) and my son aged 25 (learning and mental health issues).
We came across a man lying on the floor, just outside a seaside shelter, with people passing so I went over.
I asked him if he was OK and he said "I came here to kill myself and I have drunk a bottle of Vodka" At the same time another concerned passer by had approached and heard his statement and she was straight on her phone to the ambulance service asking for assistance.
I sat on the floor with him, noting a head injury that we related to the ambulance service, and engaged him in conversation. He told me he had mental health issues and had deliberately come to this town, from Kent, to commit suicide.....Beachy Head being a very short distance away.
In the meantime the other lady was on the phone to the ambulance service.....And I could see her pacing around, obviously frustrated, for more than 10 mins (she also noted the time). It turned out that they wanted to assess him by phone! She told them she was no Psychiatrist but it was obvious that this man needed urgent help.
We gave them my phone number and 5ish minutes later a lady called and after a discussion with me as to his ability to converse I passed over the phone with the proviso I would intervene if she or I considered it necessary.
As he was talking I noticed a Medi Alert bracelet so immediately intercepted the call to provide extra info to her and an ambulance was immediately dispatched. He had an ICE number (in case of emergancy) but I would assume that was a Kent number so not much use in Sussex!
The ambulance crew arrived within a few minutes and after being briefed by the other lady as to what had happened and then by me with info he had given me with regards to his medical/mental health conditions they took over.
Hopefully he got the help he needs.
Chris
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