Okay, back to answering Readers’ Questions!
aendr asked:
I have a couple of questions given a situation where a person sees an accident/incident) which is obviously going to need more than one service - for example collision where someone’s going to need cutting out, or a crime where someone ends up injured and the perpetrator is still around. First, what service should be asked for; second, how are the other services contacted - is the person passed around so each operator gets first hand details (subsidiary to that - what if continuing first aid information is needed to be fed to the ambulance service operator especially if there’s something meaning there will be a delay till the arrival of assistance from the ambulance service)?
There’s two answers to this, a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is, it doesn’t matter which service you ask for or who you speak to, everyone who needs to be there will turn up so long as you give one of the services the necessary information.
The long answer is as follows! Imagine you have seen a road traffic accident where someone is going to need cutting out of the car. You’ll need all three services. The service you need most urgently is the Fire Brigade, because the priority is to get the patient out of the car. When you ring 999, you can either ask for “fire” or “all three, starting with fire”. Now imagine the person trapped in the car is conscious and not badly hurt, but another has been ejected from the car and isn’t breathing. In this case, you’d ask for ambulance first, so that the call taker can give you CPR instructions and an ambulance can get to the scene first.
If you have only asked for an ambulance, but actually need other services, when the dispatch desks see the call they will contact the other services (whether you have asked for them or not). We have an electronic link to the police so by pressing a button we can make our calls pop up on their screens and send messages back and forth. If we need the fire brigade, we ring them up and give them the details of the call. This only takes a few seconds and will probably be done while you are on the phone to us. The advantage of staying on the line and talking to all the services is that you can give everyone all the information you require (as you can imagine , all the services ask different questions, for instance if someone is assaulted the ambulance service want to know how badly they are hurt, while the police want a description of the assailant…) and they can all give you instructions. The disadvantage of talking to all the services is that you will be on the phone for quite some time which might impede you helping out at the scene (or running away from the scene very fast, which you might need to do if it’s a fight or a fire or something!) One thing, though - make sure you speak to every service you request, because the telephone operator has to try to connect you to everyone you’ve asked for, and we waste a lot of valuable time calling back people who have asked for police and ambulance and then hung up after talking to the police.
October 4th, 2006 at 10:17 am
I`ve often wondered the same question
Thanks for the comprehensive reply !
October 4th, 2006 at 10:23 am
thanks, that helps… makes sense
October 4th, 2006 at 11:52 am
I’d wondered the same - that makes it a lot clearer!
October 4th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
I was wondering this last night, an amazing coincidence!
Thanks for the help
October 4th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Excellent clarification, thank you. T.
October 4th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
This is fascinating. I am really enjoying reading it all. Thank you.
May I ask another question?
What advice would you give to us, as members of the public, on how to be the best possible 999-callers? I’ve already learnt from you that it’s best to wait for the call-taker to ask us questions about the situation, rather than simply trying to garble out all the information to you as quickly as possible all at once. Is there anything you really wish the public knew that may not be obvious?
October 4th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
Good question Miranda (and Aendr). I think there are certain things in life that ought to be routinely taught in schools, including how to use 999. It’s surprising how many of us haven’t got a clue.
October 5th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
Wow!!
Thanks a lot!! Now I know a whole lot more about 999 calls and asking for ‘all three’.
October 11th, 2006 at 7:59 am
Thanks for that, and the following one answering Miranda. I’m a Guide leader and will add the information from your answers when I do “what to do in an emergency” with my Guides. I agree with Mr Mans Wife, that these things ought to be covered at school, but am doing my bit to make sure at least some teens have a clue.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Hi Mike,
I love your site and always switch on for a read when ever we get a lull in calls, which isn’t all that often! I disagree with your comment about calling the fire brigade when some is trapped. My advise could be to always call the ambulance service when people are involved. The fire brigade are powerless to act until the ambulance service arrive on scene as they need advice from the crew as to how serious the patient’s condition is and the best way to get the patient(s) out of the car. They won’t attempt a rescue until the crew have advised them. It’s all down to team work at the scene but the ambulance crew take the lead, however, the fire & rescue take responsibility for health and safety.
I know the ambulance service here in the South East have large control rooms and good links with the other emergency services, where as the fire control in Kent have a maximum of three people in it (I recall from my last visit) so the ambulance service also seem better manned to deal with the situation.
Besides, if the fire brigade get to the scene first, they block us in and we can’t get our ambulance near the scene!!!
I hope you don’t mind my comments. Great site though!!
December 7th, 2006 at 10:15 am
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