Stop GPs NOW from directing patients on the phone to call an ambulance.

Background

Prevent GPs from instructing their staff to direct patients, on the phone, to call an ambulance when the patient is in distress and pain, instead of listening to patients themselves to make an assessment of the urgency of the request, as required by the GPs terms of service.

Additional details

The message ‘call 999’ implies that the patient likely NEEDS to be hospitalised, but patients have a right even to die at home. It might be possible for a doctor to treat the patient there. Coercing a patient at end of life to go to hospital instead of offering medical treatment at home, adds to the patient’s distress. It is documented that in winter, patients taken to hospital have had to wait in the ambulance or the corridor without treatment and occasionally died, or discharged themselves.