Emergencies!

An update on dealing with emergency problems...

We have had several occasions where people have contacted the practice about people who are potentially seriously ill - e.g. chest pain, suspected stroke, traffic accidents. Please, please, please call 999 first before contacting the surgery.

Strokes and suspected heart attacks are time-critical problems and patients need to get to hospital for treatment as soon as possible. The ambulance can take some time to get to you, so the sooner it is called the better. Do call the surgery after calling 999 - the doctors will attend to you (often before the ambulance gets there) and give you emergency treatment, but ultimately the sooner patients get to hospital, the better (heart attcks getting to hospital within an hour do considerably better as do strokes within 4 hours).

It is far better for the doctor to call off the ambulance than be stuck waiting a long time for one to arrive!