Ian Beale calling for an ambulance:
“Ambulance. We’re on the top floor. It’s a block of flats. A big block of flats. I don’t know what it’s called. ” [Lucy shouts something that sounds like "Rsomethingside House"] “Rsomethingside House! My wife’s been SHOT! Just come quick! What? Yeah. Police.”
That’s ALL he said, and yet somehow the ambulance managed to get there within ORCON and whisk poor Jane to hospital. Now, I know it would probably spoil the flow of the storyline for Ian to spend too much time talking to 999, but he could at least have given an intelligible address with some kind of indication of which area he was in and answered a couple of questions (as another character, Garry, did in a recent storyline when he saw a child get run over). It’s no wonder callers ring 999 and shout things like “I’m in a big block of flats on the main road!” and expect us to know exactly where they mean. Please Mr BBC, don’t make our jobs even harder with these poor examples!
October 15th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
They’re not much better in Casualty either! Oh, and thanks for giving the storyline away, I don’t have to watch it on BBC3 now! ;-D
October 15th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
ring the BBC and ask to make a complaint - they log it and everything - but hang up before telling them what your complaints is - see how they like eh :p
October 15th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
teehee! the BBC are pretty c**p when it comes to getting the facts right, e.g. Holby City and Casualty! At least those programmes have so-called ‘Medical Advisors!’ Anyway it would sort of ruin the storyline and waste half of the programme if it was just Ian talking on the phone for 10 minutes about pt history etc!
October 15th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Oops - sorry about giving the storyline away! That bit was right at the beginning, though, so I hope I haven’t ruined it too much.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
It is a sad reflection of my life that a) I watched Eastenders tonight and b) that the first thought that came into my head when I saw Ian’s ‘conversation’ with 999 was “hmmmm… wonder what Mark and Tom are going to make of that unrealistic piece of drama…!”
So.. just off to find myself a life!
October 16th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Ahhh the magic of TV
You can have medical advisers, they advise, script writer write, directors directors and editors edit, and I am afraid conversations with ‘Ambulance’ end up on the cutting room floor, if they ever got that far, sad in’it.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I thought about you mark when he did that. but i did see another programme where the sidekick calls the ambo, and spends time in the background answering question, that could be heard as background noise. same they did not do that with lucy, and ian can be doing the whole my wife is about to die routine in peace or whats his face could of shot ian threw the head and save us the pain of hearing him act whist trying to read the newspaper!!!!!
as you can tell, the wife and kids love eastenders, i dont!!
October 16th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Aww you guys,
I thought East Enders was real just like Corrie Street and all the other soaps.
I don’t have a clue what you are all refering to as these soaps are banned in our house!!
Regards
TM
October 17th, 2007 at 11:20 am
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. sounds like a typical saturday night to me!
October 17th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
s’funny, the news report stated that three fire appliances attended together with three officers and the station cat. After rescuing everyone they were taken to hospital…..
Meanwhile, people being shot in Eastenders? It’s a start I suppose.
SD
Tongue firmly in cheek
October 18th, 2007 at 6:45 am
I am jointly trained as to work in an Operations Center and on an Ambulance … I sadly cop the media trained medics (lets call them relatives) in both worlds.
If its not
“Stop asking these questions and send me an Ambulance, I’ve told you I’m on the main road quiet close to a chip shop twice already now … what do you mean a better location? You can trace my call to the exact location I am standing, can’t you; I saw it on Casualty once”
while on call taking, I get
“What are you doing? You don’t need to do that, its wrong, you need to do it like this mate; I saw them do it on episode 21 seven series ago”
whilst attending in my shiny van.
Its all good fun ! and wouldn’t life just be plain and boring without them
October 18th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I could manage.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Hi love the blog, a real insight! Wonder if you can help, I’ve got an interview with South Western to be an EMD, but I’m also applying o be a Special Constable (volunteer police officer). Do you know if Ambu trusts allow you to be a special? I’d be so grateful to hear from you,
Cheers Nick
October 19th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Nick - Yes they do!
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 am
Nick,
Agree with Beaker, there is no conflict of interest as far as the Trusts are concerned.
SD
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Excellent cheers guys/gals!
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
EMT / EMD DeR- Can’t you trace calls to the exact location then? Casualty is so misleading!!!
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:56 pm
You can trace landlines but not mobiles. For mobiles you can find the nearest mast and/or the vague location where the phone is. Depending on the network, it is either done automatically or by the operator if you stay on line after the caller has hung up (meaning that while the call is in progress, the call taker won’t have a clue where the caller is). In practice it is almost impossible to locate someone from their mobile signal, unless they give some very distinctive landmarks, and/or there happens to be a call taker around that knows the area!
November 4th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Sometimes a detailed address doesn’t make it through the system. The police and ambulance service have had no problems in finding us out in the boonies (RTAs), but the fire service is another matter.
We have retained firefighters in the nearby village who know where we are, but on weekdays there’s not usually sufficient firefighters available to make up a crew. That means they come from the next nearest towns.
When the neighbouring farm burned down on a weekday last year, I dialled 999, asked for the fire service and explained I had a house fire, smoke issuing (could see it from my window), believed there were three people present but could only confirm one was clear (the lad who’d run up the hill to tell me) and then went on to give the address.
First, the name of the farm, then the name of the road, that the road links the village to the A-road, and that it’s on a signposted junction 2.1 miles from the village post office. I gave the operator my post code and also the OS grid reference.
The first pump to be dispatched got lost as they didn’t have the full address details. I actually watched from the hill as they drove past on the wrong side of the valley.
The second pump, from another town, got the right road but didn’t come far enough and stopped at the wrong farm (out of sight of us). Fortunately, a passing motorist who had driven past us saw them, stopped and told them where to go.
It took 35 minutes for the second pump to arrive and another three minutes for the first. The time delay is to be expected in some ways due to our location and the crews were excellent as ever, but it would have been better if the directions had been passed on.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Following on from Stoeheads comments above, during this last weekend I had to call the ambulance service to two events at which I was covering. First being a rugby match, the second a firework display.
The FRU who responded in both cases was the same guy. Time to arrive at the above incicents was 25 minutes for both. These were spaced some 6 hours apart. He was cracking in both cases and transported both patients to the local hospital.
Not the FRU’s fault as this weekend gone was a very busy time for all the emergency services because of the November 5th thingy.
The question I would like to ask is if we retained fire crews then why don’t we have retained ambulance crews? I am certain that a lot of rural commities would beneift from such a service and this in turn would help reduce the burden on the NHS ambulance service.
Finally, does anyone know if there is such a thing in existance?
Mark perhaps you could explain the pros and cons of such an idea. It seems like a sound solution to me especially as the retainded fire crews do such a sterling job.
Regards to you all
TM
November 8th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Good point Trooper Man. We only have one ambulance covering this area so it can be 20-40 minutes before it or a relief gets to us.
When we have accidents here, I have to assume I could be doing first aid for that long, possibly on my own for most or all of that time.
With the fire I mentioned, the fire service were here first, the police about 10 minutes later and the ambulance never showed. We had a young lad with smoke inhalation so the fire fighters administered oxygen therapy before his parents took him to hospital.
Hmm, thinking about TM’s idea, the problem would be daft rules as with the fire service. I was turned down when I appled to be a retained firefighter as I was 2.1 miles out of the village - the limit is two miles.
November 12th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Hi Stonehead
I don’t think rules would come in to it much. ST John often help out the ambulance services across the UK in times of trouble. For example, the recent floods earlier this year and not forgetting the London bombings.
Our vehicles are used mostly over the weekends at public events such as the Lord Mayors show Saturday just gone and most sports events held on a regular basis.
Our front line ambulances are identical to that of the county boys and we often have paramedics in the back of our vehicles whilst transporting patients to hospital. We have a terrific working relationship with the ambulance services country wide and are trusted in troubled times to provide 999 cover when the system is stretched.
I think the biggest problem would be is that who would fund the purchasing of the vehicles if SJA’s were not used. In most towns and villages in Germany local businesses pay for the fire and ambulance service as a tax up and above to all other taxes levied by their goverment.
I believe it could work very well, but as ever who will put their hand up to mastermind the whole thing.
A bit more food for thought.
Regards to you all
TM