@dubstep_joe 483177 wrote:
Why wouldn’t they take you to a normal hospital? Why a mental hospital? Surely a normal hospital is better prepared for a potential OD or something?
@NN~Gazatryptamine 483182 wrote:
Caused they assume worst case sinario, uh he/she has taken loads of this or that so they must be suicidal. The health service is a bit on the fatalism side, they don’t really see the recreational side of taking loads of drugs, I had a hard time explaining this when I was under the.mental health act.
the OP is in the USA where healthcare is organised similar to Victorian England pre NHS. there was some sort of public healthcare in Britain but the general hospital (for treating the rest of the body) and the mental hospital (often referred to as a lunatic asylum) were in different areas.
Today in the NHS these are often the same site, but in separate areas, so either the patient can be wheeled into the ED or the life signs monitoring kit brought to them (these days its more portable than a patients trolley, similarly with scanners for maternity).
In the USA provision of ambulances is often done by the Fire Department, but they have EMS/paramedics same as ours and life signs monitoring kit inside the ambo. so once they’ve worked out the patient isn’t going to die, they would be offloaded to the mental heath unit.
most old style asylums in the UK are either derelict or get reused for NHS admin purposes (often the Finance, ICT and facilities departments, something I find amusing with my warped sense of humour, especially having nearly ended up on the other side of the wards more than once..)
