Taxi to hospital

[Fran]

Having read the newspaper article "NHS fails to explain delays" regarding nhs24 patients having to travel by taxi at nights or weekends after a doctor has said they must go into hospital, I am interested to see what other forum members think of this.
Do you think this is right and that one taxi firm only in thurso is enough to cover the whole of caithness, especially at weekend nights when thay are busy with pubs etc.
Do you think the ambulance car service should be doing this work? Are the taxi drivers vetted like all NHS workers are? If not, why not? Can taxis cope in an emergency if the patient takes ill during the 21 mile trip?
NHS Highland books and pays for taxis to take out of hours patients to hospital.Ambulance cars take patients to hospital at any time, but have never been used by the NHS24 out of hours service, even though they are on call and based in all parts of the county.
any comments?

[saffy100]

I think the idea is ridiculous.......but then i think the whole NHS24 thing is a joke, my nephew was poorly with a temperature, we called the doctor..which is a dual practice having surgeries in 2 villages, the call went thought to nhs 24 at lunchtime, after 20 mins they called back and as BOTH surgeries had half day on the same day!!! and told us to take him to hospital....when we got there the doctor asked WHY had we brought him to hospital!!!!! and when we explained this is what we were told to do.....she ranted on about how the surgery should'nt have swithched over till 12.30 blah blah....in the meantime my little nephew was sitting shivering on the trolley.......!!!!!!!!!!!
A FARCE.......all we wanted was to see a local Doc...and we would have taken him....was'nt after a callout....

So i agree with you...its a stupid idea, but nothing will be done as usual until something happens....

Sorry...rant over....

[angela5]

i agree, stupid idea, nhs24 is a joke with past experiences i won't go into.
i would not want to travel 21 miles in a taxi for sure! suppose you had a suspected heart problem! what are they going to do call you a cab?
who will be in the cab to help?

[linzy222]

I also agree NHS24 is a load of rubbish, but if someone was that ill and needed to go to hospital, you would phone 999 and get an ambulance, well i would and if i had phoned the NHS24 helpline and they said go to the hospital i would put the phone down and phone for an ambulance anyway and if everyone that was told to go to hospital phoned an ambulance i am sure the ambulance drivers would get sick of it too!!

[saffy100]

The only problem with that is that if the ambulance service don't consider it an emergency they can charge you for the journey, it happened to someone i know.

[lassieinfife]

We have a nhs24 based in our local hospital and dealing daily with some of the numpties who are employed it hardly seems surprising that the service is in such chaos, having said that some of the people do sterling work, but as is the case you more often than not you get the numpty:rolleyes:

[linzy222]

Did u hear on the news last night they r planning an NHS direct website, where u put in your symptoms and it leads to another question and then another etc u know what i mean, then it'll tell u if u need to go to hospital or just go to bed for a few hours

They r doing this coz they couldn't keep up with the calls they had last winter

Don't know if it'll be a good thing or bad thing!!

But time will tell!!

[spiggie]

dont get me started on the nhs 24 its a disgrace!!