This time last year, my mum had a fall. She was carrying a tray of tea for the builders and tripped over scaffolding. My dad didn't even call 999, he called me on my mobile in a panic. I was in a unique position to send one of our ambulances with a paramedic crew directly to her and they arrived in under 10 minutes. They found she had a spinal injury and could not move her arms, she was immobilised on a stretcher and rushed into hospital. Thankfully, she recovered, but the experience was stressful for me and it dawned on me just how terrifying it would be for someone who wasn't a paramedic, doctor or nurse.

In January shortly after, my dad caught COVID-19, which turned into pneumonia. He didn't want to go to hospital so one of our specialist paramedics saw him, arranged for a course of antibiotics and referred him to NHS hospital at home, a great service which enables remote monitoring as part of a "virtual ward." Sadly the bacteria was antibiotic resistant and he deteriorated. Thank goodness, I have a policy to never ignore calls from my parents... my mother called me and said that the doctor had called 999 over two hours before because he couldn't breathe. After telling her off for not calling me immediately, I sent a paramedic ambulance which again arrived very soon after and I made my way to meet them at hospital. Dad was meant to go into Resus (the urgent part of A&E) but it was full, he was put in a cubicle and left for nearly two hours without being checked on. Thankfully I arrived and was able to look after him. He ended up having nearly 6 months in various hospitals and over a month in intensive care.

I reflected on the incident and realised the reason my mum left it to the last minute was because she didn't want to bother me and she didn't realise how bad it was until it was too late. What if there was one number to ring when something went wrong where someone would come and do a check up, start treatment and hopefully prevent things from worsening early on?

I have genuine anxiety about my parents who are only in their 70s having falls, I know that the likelihood is if they call 999 they will be waiting 12 or 16 hours. Even if i'm in an important meeting, if they call me I will answer. I know it's only a matter of time until they need me again. I'm in a unique position to have the knowledge and resources to help them, but I feel everyone needs alternative options. As a Paramedic, if you start a shift in the morning, you know that you will probably be attending calls which were made the day before.

I decided to launch Urgent Care at Your Door at the start of the summer. To my amazement no one else was offering anything similar. I never expected to find myself on the national news 2 nights in a row!

We hear of ambulance delays, but unless you work for an ambulance service, doctor's surgery or hospital the worries are set aside. Occasionally stories make it into the news, for example, last week a 95 year old lady waited five hours in the freezing cold on the pavement with an agonising broken hip. Thankfully bystanders brought hot water bottles and duvets to try and keep her alive. Five hours is sadly quite a good response time of a category 3 call. We know that elderly fallers with prolonged floor time face a significantly higher risk of mortality. On Monday, it was reported that an inquest found that a man would have survived had he got help sooner. His wife called 999 5 times over the course of about 6 hours before he suffered a cardiac arrest.

Seeing the delays in getting urgent medical help and the immense pressure on the NHS is worrying. I have a five year old daughter who has allergies.

I decided to create a solution: Urgent Care at Your Door. It started as an alternative for A&E but has rapidly become a market-leading solution. We've 'super-charged' our service... our Specialist Paramedic and Advanced Clinical Practitioners have more tools, we have state-of-the-art blood testing equipment where we can analyse a sample at the bedside, we've got a lab where we can send swabs and tests to, we've partnered with private hospitals where we can get x-rays or CT scans in minutes and we have access to over 150 private intensive care beds in some of the leading hospitals. We also have knowledge from over a decade of delivering urgent and emergency care in our community for both the NHS, businesses, individuals. As well as emergency department doctors at the end of the phone to support our frontline clinicians. We have tech partners where we can issue a private prescription and send a link to your phone which can be used in any pharmacy or even arrange next day delivery of vital medication.

In October we launched our monthly subscription to make our services as affordable as possible and open up our ability to balance our capacity with demand. It seems I'm not the only one worrying about my parents or children. Our subscriptions give peace of mind and easy access to healthcare when you need it. We are onlly currently covering Hertfordshire, North London and the surroundings, but we're hoping to expand further soon. We offer our subscription to individuals and families as well as businesses who want to provide the ultimate employee benefit which helps improve retention, happiness and reduce lost days due to sickness.

Our most popular plan is the Family Plan at £52 per month, offering up to 5 call-outs per year, transport to hospital, and £200 in tests.

🔗 Learn more about how we’re changing urgent care for families: www.urgentcareatyourdoor.com

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