If someone in your home or workplace became sick or injured, when would you call an ambulance instead of driving them to a hospital?

37 comments

  1. If they can’t walk to the car I’m calling an ambulance.
    Well, I’m really calling the emergency line and doing whatever they say.

  2. Idk just when it seems serious. I called an ambulance four times before and that was because of a bad fall, a stroke, alcohol poisoning and a panic attack (which at the time seemed more serious). I think I’ve driven people to hospital twice and that was because of stomach pain and a cut in the hand.

  3. If they can’t walk and/or talk I’m calling the emergency number and doing whatever they tell me. Also, if I see a car accident even if it doesn’t look serious I’m also calling the emergency number.

  4. Sweden:

    I guess that is up to the emergancy line?
    If you need help in any way we call the number (112), then if an ambulance is needed they send one.

    Edit:
    Last time for me was 3 years ago, a friend was to drunk at midsummer.

  5. If I think it’s life threatening and requires immediate assistance I’d call 112. I did so when I thought my mother had a stroke for example. If not I’d drive them or as an intermediate solution call 116117 for advice. That’s a number in Germany to call if it can’t wait until tomorrow, but isn’t a life-death situation neither.

  6. The call takers and ambulances are for when medics are needed at the house or scene as it unfolds, it may be that there is no big issue and advice can be given by phone alone. It may be that the medics show up to do checks and tests and use equipment and then realise hospital transport is not needed and make healthcare suggestions and book a doctors appointment at a regular GP in the coming days for them

    It may be that they treat and transport, it may require treatment while transporting as the patient stops compensating and rapidly declines, it may be that there is an emergency the seriousness of which was not realised by the caller etc

    But none of this is the call of a non-medically trained resident or bystander to make, you just call one of the numbers and take the advice of professionals – some conditions can even be made worse by trying to help them yourself (and not just by delaying treatment – it’s quicker for the closest stationed ambulance to reach you on lights than for you to reach the hospital without)

  7. If it is dangerous or completely unreasonable to drive there, like when someone is passing out or needs treatment or stabilisation during transportation and going to or calling the GP first is dangerous. It is usually faster to call the GP first with arm or lower leg fractures and then go to the ER, because you can skip the waiting room. It is usually necessary to take an ambulance for a hip, pelvic or back fracture, because you need to be properly supported.

  8. The hospital emergency ward in the Netherlands is only for.. emergencies. For less urgent stuff you always go through the GP first. So driving to the hospital yourself does not make a lot of sense in that context.

    I’d call the ambulance if it looks time sensitive. If it looks like it can wait until whenever the GP is available, I wait for that. If in doubt, just call the emergency line or the GP, they know better.

  9. If both of these are true:

    a) The condition needs immediate medical attention as it poses an acute threat to life or limb if left untreated.

    b) It does not offer a significant time advantage to definitive care – this is care in a hospital that can treat the condition accordingly – or immediately life supporting care for me to transport the person myself. This obviously also means that I could even get the person into my own vehicle in the first place.

    With the following being the definite excluding factor:

    c) The condition makes it likely for complications to arise during transport that I cannot handle in my own vehicle.

    That would be a separate clinical decision for each case, even depending on the possible range in severity of a single suspected diagnosis.

  10. In Sweden,

    I call them fair few times when people get injured, they know what they are doing and keep people alive until you get to the hospital.If you get injured at work, it is ambulance ride for insurance reason, at least at my husbands work.

    Yes I did call 112 and they go, yeah that sound right, then sent ambulance.

    Last time I had to call due to me, doctors orders, got the help I need but didnt need to go in, but the carpenter fixing up the apartment next to us, had to go, he cut of 2 fingers so they shifted focus on him.

    Remember in Sweden, ambulance drivers have medical training and one has to be a registered nurse .

  11. I call an ambulance if there’s an emergency.

    You have a fever and you’re sneezing? Your tommy aches after eating too much? You feel a random pain that’s tolerable but annoying? Not an emergency, you can walk/drive to the hospital.

    You had an accident and your leg bone sticks out of your skin? You are fainting, losing consciousness, losing a lot of blood quickly? Emergency, you call 112.

  12. It depends on the situation and perceived urgency.

    If someone has had a fall then you shouldn’t move them without a proper back board to ensure that, if they have spinal damage, you don’t make it worse so definitely a job for a trained paramedic. If someone is profusely bleeding, then you or they should try to stop or stem the flow, but it probably makes sense to call an ambulance, although if it was a cut to a finger or hand and you can stop the flow, then it probably would be quicker to take them to A&E (Accident and Emergency). They will be triaged at some point after arriving, but you might have to wait several hours for a doctor to see you if you aren’t considered to be an urgent case.

    There is (to my knowledge) no penalty for calling an ambulance unnecessarily in the UK, and no fee, but if the emergency call centre operative thinks what you are describing is non-urgent or not something that an ambulance is appropriate for, they may advise you to call 111 (the non-emergency NHS number) or another more relevant service. The emergency number is 999, but 112 (the European equivalent) also works.

    However, at the moment the ambulance services are very stretched because there are regularly queues of ambulances waiting outside a hospital because there aren’t the staff/beds available so, at the moment, if the emergency operator is quoting over an hour for an ambulance to come, you’re probably best off driving them to A&E unless moving them is too much of a risk. Sadly we’ve had more than one instance lately where someone has died because of there being such a long delay before an ambulance or paramedic would be able to attend.

    Regarding workplace injuries, since staff are not generally insured to carry passengers, then due to health and safety and liability laws most employers would probably not want them to take a colleague to hospital but rather call an ambulance. However, given the previously mentioned situation, I imagine that exceptions are being made.

  13. At work:

    Severe workplace injuries, always, let alone for the necessary documentation. And also the police or other law enforcement agencies if necessary.

    Whenever there is the slightest indication it might have to do with the heart, so the signs of a heart attack, stroke etc. pp.

    Bring out the emergency physician and let them decide.

    At home: I don’t drive, so whenever someone has to be transported to the hospital in an emergency case.

    If it is not an emergency case, just call in the 24/7 on call physician to your home. But you might have bad luck and get a dermatologist or ophthalmologist.

    IRL I called the ambulance several times when someone had an epileptic seizure in the tram and of course when there were some traffic accidents.

  14. If they can’t wait or can’t be brought to the hospital by an untrained individual in a normal car. The emergency services are very particular about this and won’t send out an ambulance unless they believe it’s necessary or it’s an issue that can be best tackled on the spot by responders.

  15. If their condition is so bad they can’t even walk out to the driveway to get in the car.

  16. Apparently here for some it’s ok to call an ambulance when:
    1. They cut their finger
    2. They want their blood pressure checked
    3. Their ear is hurting
    4. They want to know what is this strange thing on their skin
    5. They have a cough
    6. They bit their tongue
    7. They think they might have a tick and want to have it checked
    8. They suspect a fever

    I shit you not, these are real.

  17. I just got dizzy, loose consciousness for a couple of seconds, and they called an ambulance. Got me to Hospital and did a ton of checks.

  18. When it’s a emergency or when in doubt (like chest pain, even if it would only be aching muscles it’s better to make the call). Last time I called for myself bc of arrhytmic feelings and loosing feeling in my hands and feet. Before that, someone fell drunk and hit their head, there was no blood but she was so drunk it was impossible for me to estimate whether she was experiencing consussion etc or just drunk.

  19. I let the emergency responders on the phone decide whether to send an ambulance.

  20. I called an ambulance once and it was so embarrassing and I felt terrible because I fully thought that I was having a heart attack but I was actually having a random panic attack. I hadn’t had one before and it feels like a heart attack but I was physically totally fine 🤦

    In general I’d only call one if I felt it was urgent and I couldn’t get myself or the person to the hospital.

    Living in rural Ireland, you also have to consider whether it’s better to wait for an ambulance to drive all the way out from the nearest town to bring you back in or just drive straight.

    The nearest hospital to my family home is a 30 minutes drive so the one time we had an emergency, my parents threw my brother in the car and drove rather than waiting.

  21. In the Netherlands: i don’t make that judgement call. If I see someone falling off his bike ending up unconsciousor bleeding or whatsoever, I will call 112, they will ask me what I saw and assess the situation and either send for an ambulance with sirens, lights and the whole disco turned on, or they’ll just send an ambulance to look at the person without lights, or if I made a judgment error and the guy is okayish and can get to a hospital himself they’ll thank me for my concern and go about with their jobs.

    They basically say: call 112, better safe than sorry, people picking up the phone are trained to assess these situations and can usually make quite a good judgment call on what exactly is needed.

    (And there is a difference between a fake 112 call and an unnecessary 112 call. The first one is for instance calling for something which isn’t there, the second is being overly cautious and calling when it is not needed. The first one is punishable by law, the second isn’t)

  23. We’re told by the government if its serious enough to go to the hospital call an ambulance don’t drive there.

    Unless its a special circumstance it would be very weird to drive to the hospital here in the UK

  24. When you are sick, you go to your home doctor and not the hospital. The hospital is only for urgent care. The home doctor can not provide

  25. In a home environment, I would call the general doctor first asking for advice. I was once with family visiting my grandparents, and my granddad slowly got partially a drooping face syndrome over the coarse of the visit, no other vitals were affected. Since we were worried it might be another stroke, we called the general doctor, and they basically contacted the hospital to send an ambulance. Later the cause was just an major eye infection instead of a stroke.

    For any inures I see outside, I would directly call the emergency line (112), stating the situation

  26. That depends.

    1. Does the person need medical care asap? Is there a risk that their condition worsens if they don’t receive care asap?

    2. Does me transporting this person to the hospital pose a danger to them? (Related to their condition, e.g. broken leg). If yes –> ambulance.

    When a person is in a condition that they need medical care within the next hours you should call an ambulance.

    Strokes, heart attacks, bleeding wounds, amputations, broken legs/arms/spine/skull/hip bone, loss of conscience, extreme pain, breathing problems or no breathing/heart beat are reasons to call an ambulance.

    Generally symptoms that indicate severe and imminent danger. Usually people know when they need an ambulance, and if they can’t tell anymore they definitely need it.

    Ambulances basically start treatment when they pick you up, and in some cases this might be the extra time you need to have a fighting chance. If you have a heart attack and you take 2 hours to drive to the hospital, you’ve missed the “golden hour” in which heart tissue could have been saved if treatment had started soon enough.

    A sprained ankle, diarrhea, or a broken finger is usually not a reason to call an ambulance.

  27. For myself? When I can’t walk or can’t breathe (allergic reaction). For someone else … Any accident, heart attack whatever. Better call for nothing than the other way around.

  31. If they don’t breath, I would stay and try to do what Im told by phone to help reanimating him while the ambulance comes. If he’s responsive I prefer to bring him to the hospital since it’s faster.

  32. When someone needs care right away and can’t be transported to hospital otherways.

    It’s always better to call emergency service and let them decide if they send an ambulance. If the ambulance is not needed for transportation to hospital (they don’t need to go to he hospital, or don’t need care on the way there) the ambulance gives advice how to go there, eg call a taxi. (btw, in Finland ambulance and taxi to hospital [when it’s not possible to use public transportation] cost the same amount, 25€/one-way trip with a maximum co-pays of 300€/year. After that it costs nothing)

  33. If someone can drive them to the hospital, an ambulance is not needed. The time it takes for an ambulance to arrive can be completely skipped if you start making your way to the hospital yourself.

    Generally an ambulance is only called if a doctor/nurse/emt is needed at the scene of the accident. For example if someone broke their neck and needs to be stabilized, or if someone got impaled on a rehab bar.

  34. i used to race dirtbikes as a kid. of the plus 5-6 times i had a crash big enough that i had to go to hospital. my parents would drive me to the emergency room. and from there it was ambulance to the hospital

  35. I’ve called an ambulance for other people three times. Mostly when it was dangerous to move them solo or help was needed urgently.

  36. At home I’d call an ambulance if I cannot safely transport the person myself, if I feel that the situation needs immediate medical attention (e.g. severe allergic reaction) or if it seems like the persons condition could rapidly deteriorate.

    At work we always have trained first responders or paramedics on site and company policy dictates that they have to be called for any accident or injury. So I guess they’ll decide if an ambulance is needed.

  37. If it’s life threatening or a serious accident that needs treatment and cant otherwise get to hospital. If there’s something that seems urgent but not life threatening, I’d usually call gp/pharmacy/non emergency number and go to the hospital if recommended.

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