An ambulance should be called only in the event of an imminent threat to life or in situations where an accident may lead to significant damage to he alth. What to do when we urgently need help at night or on a Sunday? Learn to judge the situation soberly so as not to call an ambulance when it is not necessary, because at that time someone else may really need a doctor.
If the symptoms do not indicate a very serious disease and there is no immediate threat to life, we should go to the night medical help, which works after the closure of local clinics, i.e. from 18 to 8 am and on weekends and holidays. Insured persons benefit from this assistance free of charge. In a situation where we are unable to reach the doctor, we can call him home. It is worth knowing the address and telephone number of the facility that has such duty close to our place of residence.
When can you call an ambulance?
According to the rules of medical rescue, you can call an ambulance (this also applies to reporting to the Emergency Department, i.e. Hospital Emergency Department) only in situations of direct threat to life or in the so-called urgent conditions that may lead to serious damage to he alth. We call an ambulance to the victim of an accident, we also call them to a patient who develops such dangerous symptoms as:
- loss of consciousness,
- disturbance of consciousness,
- convulsions,
- sudden sharp pain in the chest,
- heart rhythm disturbance,
- severe shortness of breath,
- sudden severe abdominal pain,
- persistent vomiting, especially with some blood,
- massive gastrointestinal or genital haemorrhage.
You do not pay for an ambulance and you can also call an uninsured person if he or she is in a life-threatening condition.
Make rational decisions to call an ambulance
- The act on emergency medical services says that emergency teams go to people in a life-threatening condition or when there is a sudden deterioration of he alth, says Grzegorz Borstern, an internal medicine specialist who has been working in the Warsaw ambulance service for 32 years. - In practice, it is different. Better and better equipped ambulances and bettereducated rescuers also go to trivial illnesses. In my career, I rushed to Czarek, who was choking and choking, but Czarek was a bulldog dog. There was also a call to a hook in the hand. On the spot, it turned out that the lady had stuck a fishing hook in her finger while cleaning. I am far from underestimating patients' fears for their own he alth. If someone calls and says that they experience severe pain in the chest, and after examining it, taking an EKG, it is known that it is not a heart attack, but neuralgia - I have no objection. The sick man didn't have to know it was nothing serious. But when it turns out that someone has abused alcohol after a dramatic call, I am furious. I am aware of the imperfections of the he alth care system. But just as the Road Traffic Act will not protect us from accidents, the Medical Rescue Act will not guarantee the rescue of all people. Overload, and sometimes even insufficient primary care, and difficult access to specialists make patients look for another way to obtain medical help. An ambulance service, however, cannot be considered a mobile clinic or a taxi, but it is because there is no liability whatsoever for unjustified calls. I am not demanding a restriction of access to emergency medical services, but I am appealing to common sense so that the ambulance does not leave for ordinary illnesses. The system requires a thorough reconstruction, because neither patients nor medical service employees can find their way in what we currently have.
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