No sooner than I’d written the last entry sounding off about broken finger woman’s friend, we received a call from their neighbour.
“I just wanted to apologise on her behalf. I am so sorry that they were rude to you — in fact, that they called you out for a broken finger in the first place! I gave them such a telling off, and put them in a taxi to the hospital. So you can cancel.”
I must remember, for every idiot who makes me cross, there is a decent, sensible person who makes the world a better place.
And this meant we did not have to send to Finger Woman, and had an available ambulance for the poor long suffering man with the infected operation wound, who’d been waiting for ages, and the little old lady stuck on the floor with an injured arm. Which was a good thing.
May 26th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
how increadibly nice of that neighbour!
Not only did they consider the fact that the finger woman was possibly stressed/moneyless/confused, but they also considered your feelings too!
They really are an increadible person - wish there were more people like that in the world….
May 27th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
It’s so easy to forget sometimes that there are people with a bit of sense out there. Although, to be fair, they do seem to be a bit thin on the ground sometimes. Especially weekend evenings.
Still, nice neighbour who probably won’t get the credit they deserve from your original caller.
May 27th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
so are you able to blog whilst AT work?
May 28th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Only on breaks - we don’t have net access in the control room. I usually wait till I get home, though.
May 28th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
In 16 years I have only had one person call back to apologize for being rude.
May 28th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
well thats always a nice suprise… :o)
May 29th, 2007 at 11:55 am
thethinblueline said: Still, nice neighbour who probably won’t get the credit they deserve from your original caller.
Of course not! They’ll be thought of as being mean, and horrible, and cruel, and etc.
Regards
Nick
http://nickhough.blogspot.com
May 29th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Wow, i’m so glad call takers can use their common sense sometimes instead of having to send a motor round to every numpty. I’ve been called out to all sorts of rubbish including ‘i cant get out of bed and need a drink of water’. Its a shame the folk on the road dont know how stressful and difficult control can be sometimes. I’ve always thought an exchange week for both would be a great idea to enable everyone to see the other side of the coin.
Love the blog by the way.
May 29th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Call takers sadly aren’t allowed to use their common sense and could get in trouble for having a conversation like the above. Even as a dispatcher, it’s bending the rules a bit — it is forbidden to tell someone to make their own way, so instead we try to persuade them to come to that decision by themselves!
Totally agree about the exchange week idea — there’s quite a feeling of “us” and “them” between crews and control, with both sides thinking the others have it easy and are just trying to make their lives difficult. Having been for rideouts, I’ve got some idea how the crews feel, and I’d like to see a few more crews in Control from time to time
May 30th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Took a call from a regular last night. He’d fallen on his face and scratched his nose about a week ago, now woke up with a cold and couldn’t breathe thru his nose. Thought the two were connected and wanted an ambulance to take him to hospital in case his mouth packed up and he couldn’t breathe thruogh that either! I suggested he was being a bit over-dramatic and refused him an ambulance. I had to assure him his mouth wasn’t gonna suddenly stop functioning and give him my name so he could complain if I was wrong and he died!!! My clinical advisor wasn’t pleased with what I’d done, but when asked said she’d have done the same thing. Sometimes we calltakers and dispatchers do use common sense, but its certainly not encouraged. I think I’ll lose no sleep over this one though…