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The Swedish healthcare system aims to provide the best care possible, thus fulfilling legal and program requirements despite the need for reducing costs. This study’s aim has been to acquire deeper understanding of the factors underlying patients’ experience of inappropriate treatment and care or personnel’s problematical attitudes during their contact with the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) (Ambulance Services).

This study used a care science perspective. It applied qualitative content analysis, analyzing data for meaning. Data comprised 32 deviation reports or complaints from patients in Stockholm, Sweden in 2014.

Patients at the limits of their self-help experienced acute need for speedy transfer to hospital. Lack of recognition for their suffering caused them to feel badly treated by ambulance personnel.

Patients in this study felt objectified and not treated as individual …