Many of my non-ambulance friends say they don’t like New Year’s Eve. Everywhere’s packed and expensive and you are forced to hug people you don’t like and then make your way home with a bunch of puking drunks. Well, let me tell you that compared with my New Year’s Eve, that sounds like heaven! You people with normal jobs don’t know how lucky you are. A New Year’s Eve of call taking is about as close you can get to hell on earth. However many ambulances you have, however many call takers you have (we had more call takers than telephones), you are never, ever going to cope. There were 1,825 calls between midnight and 4am, and 6,114 for the entire day. (To compare - on an average weekend night, I’d expect about 700 calls between midnight and 4am, and probably about 300 on a weekday.)
Broadly speaking, there were four categories of calls:
1) Alcohol Related Accidents
My mate’s got drunk and got in a fight. My mate’s got drunk and fallen down the stairs. My mate’s got drunk and taken some dodgy pills, and now he’s having a fit. My mate’s got drunk and fallen out of a jacuzzi. My mate’s got drunk and fallen out of a first floor window… It never ends. Some people grumble about these calls, complaining that these injuries are self inflicted and therefore not deserving of our sympathy and help, but I don’t agree with that. It is not like anyone deliberately has an accident and it isn’t against any laws to get drunk, so unless you think people should avoid doing anything fun just in case it ends in an accident, I think these calls are just as deserving as any other. On the other hand, I wish they wouldn’t all happen at once. And I wish I didn’t have to talk to drunk people in order to help with them. As well as the abusive ones, you get a lot that won’t shut up or don’t make any sense. There was one woman slurring so much I had to get her to repeat herself three times and I still couldn’t understand so I had to get her to put someone else on. She wasn’t even the patient!
(The worst thing about the calls is possibly the realisation that if I wasn’t at work, *I* would be one of those drunken fools…)
2. Just Drunken.
“My mate’s had too much to drink and now he’s puking up and staggering around!” Yes, that’s what happens, you idiot. He’s drunk. And if we send you one of our fully equipped emergency vehicles on blue lights, he’ll still be drunk. I realise it’s a bit of a pain watching your mate puke on a street corner because none of the taxis will take him home, but really, do you have to make it our problem? Do you realise you are going to have to spend the next six hours in A+E waiting while the doctor sees the people who are actually ill? Do us all a favour, and ring your mum to pick you up instead. And don’t you dare puke in the back of the ambulance. You do realise that it’s the crews themselves who have to clean them, don’t you?
3. People Who Don’t Know What Day It Is
Maternataxis, broken fingers, bellyaches… they all seemed to think that we’d got a special service running just for them and it would be unaffected by the fact it was New Year. I got a call from a man who’d rung a total of six, count ‘em, minutes ago, whose teenage daughter had backache. It may have been more serious than that, I wouldn’t know, because he’d refused to answer any of the original call taker’s question and hung up on her. He rang back to say he was taking her in the car (so why didn’t he do that in the first place?) because “she could have died in the time you get to get here!” and “your service is ****ing rubbish”. Cheers, mate, so are your manners. Don’t envy the staff who had to put up with that for the next six hours in A+E…
4. People Who Are Genuinely Ill
And of course, it doesn’t stop just because it’s New Year’s Eve. I felt desperately sorry for the old people with breathing problems and heart attacks - and due to the cold weather, there were loads of them - knowing that all the ambulances were out dealing with the drunks and they wouldn’t get a vehicle until one finished up at the hospital. I reckon that if you are struck down with a life threatening illness on New Year’s Eve, you must be one of the most unlucky people alive. Along with those poor suckers who have to work.
Fingers crossed that this is the last New Year that I will EVER have to spend call taking…
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
What would you rather be doing - allocating?
Must be fun for those guys with a board full of red & blue with a count of 0 ambulances on green…
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I expect allocating is really stressful too, but at least you don’t have the constant barrage of having to speak to people! Hopefully I’ll find out first hand next year. Our watch are on nights again… maybe I’ll be eating my words by the end of the night and praying for a shift on call taking!
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I was one of those happy crews speeding about London on NYE picking up drunks and other assorted casualties. I have the greatest respect for the control staff. As a crew; we got one job at a time and could remain happily naive to the volume of calls. All night control provided support and method through the madness. My thanks to you all.
Is it me, or are there more genuinely ill people on NYE? Surprisingly - the majority of my calls were to medically ill rather than alcoholly ill people!
Once again, thanks for your hard work.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Thank you for all that you guys do - no-one appreciates it!
And rather sadly on point 4 - did you see this one?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7169399.stm
No indication that he would have survived, but the delay wouldn’t have helped
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Glad to see call taking is the same over there as it is here in Australia…
To go along with point number 3 - I took a call from a rather nice old man who had fallen three days ago, and had now decided that 230am on New Years Day was the best time to call for an ambulance.
In his defence, he said he’d been struggling with the pain and it was rather black & blue at the time, and he understood how busy we were so didn’t mind waiting.
-Nick
January 4th, 2008 at 2:59 am
“…unless you think people should avoid doing anything fun just in case it ends in an accident…”
I think that’s the way government policy is going in this country.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
1800 calls by 4am, are you sure that’s all? I got my last job at 5 ish and the CAD was over 2700! I only went to 1 patient in a 12 hour shift that wasn’t alcohol related, at least none of them managed to throw up on me…
January 4th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
That was the figure I got from the BBC website. I’ll check it when I’m next in. It might have been 1,000 incidents rather than calls, given that we have about three calls per incident!
January 4th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Being drunk may not be an offence by itself, but drunk and incapable, drunk and disorferly, drunk in a public place and drunk on licensed premises are still - I believe - all on the statute books. The police should be dealing with these NOT the LAS.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I agree with you 100% Flora, and I recently made the same observation to one of the local constabulary when he told me that his divisional officer (I assume he meant his superintendent or higher) was making a formal complaint to the Ambulance service about the response (or rather lack of …) he had received the previous evening when requesting ambulances to attend every conceivable drink related incident. (we were down 3 crews in the immediate area and another seven crews down accross the county).
The responce I received from our “Boy in Blue” was that the IPPC have apparently issued guidence saying that drunks should not be taken into custody for their own safety as the might increase the numer of Deaths In Custody (DIC’s) and the poice could be sued for failing to provide adequate care, and possibly even face a manslaughter charge…..
So why do we need to take them to hospital?….. easy …. so our poor overworked nurses and doctors can babysit them all night long, wipe their fevered brow, take a load of abuse and mop up the ever flowing Urine / Vomit / Faeces etc, and make sure the patient’s airway is patent to prevent them asphyxiating. and the police get away scott free.
There is a simple way to stop people choking on their vomit while in police custody ….. hang them from the walls by their ankles !!!!!!
January 5th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Does it take fully qualified nurses to “babysit” the intoxicated? Could you have a Drunk Center staffed by lesser-trained specialists? But then they’d have to be experienced enough to distinguish drunkenness from serious illness (e.g. hypoglycemia). Well, it was just a thought…
January 6th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Vasha, nice idea.
What about the drunk who is unconscious with low pulse and resp rate?
A St John Ambulance first aider was telling me on NYE he sat with his hand around the stretcher pole next to a gentleman’s mouth so that he could continuously monitor his resps, whilst talking to the young lady accompanying him.
Nice idea, but too much could go wrong otherwise!
January 6th, 2008 at 4:50 am
As a EMS/Police/Fire dispatcher in the states, I’m heartened to see that there is a universal truth for New Year’s Eve. I find your stories most interesting. Whilst the terms are different apparently the provision of service and dispatching is the same in the UK as the USA.
Cheers.
John
Portland, Oregon 9-1-1
January 9th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
> My mate’s got drunk and fallen out of a jacuzzi.
How in Gods’ names does one fall OUT of a jacuzzi? I could understand “My mate’s got drunk and submerged in the jacuzzi.”
January 9th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Just as a matter of interest, is this an either-or scenario? If someone’s come to the attention of the police by being Offensively Drunken (in the sense that they’re in one of Flora’s categories), does popping them in an ambulance to make the A+E staff’s night a misery and endanger the lives of grannies who’ve fallen over (or whatever) in practice protect these revolting specimens from being fined? I don’t suppose a court summons/fixed penalty notice could be timed to coincide with the hangover (tho’ it’d be a nice touch) given the fact that there will be an administrative time lag and the post ain’t what it (I’m told) once was, but even arriving a day or two later it’d surely focus the mind a bit? Or at least cut the budget for the next binge…
January 11th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I’m still in favour of bringing back the gaol. A night on vomit soaked straw surrounded by drunks would do more for highlighting the dangers of binge drinking than a shiny poster in a bust stop.
Throw in some CCTV if you like to monitor, but if we carry on pampering people, they will just abuse themselves more and more.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
I was on call till 7pm at my surgery NYE, I got a call at 6.30 from a guy in his 20s asking for a visit to his brother - also in his 20s. He had D and V and was gradually recovering but stiklll couldn’t really eat. The call went something like:
Patient: I need a visit to my brother who is being sick.
Me: How long has he had it bla-di-bla-di bla……..Well it doesn’t sound as though he’s particularly unwell or dehydrated and I’ve given you full advice etc What were you hoping I might be able to do if I visited?
Patient: Well I’m off out to my party soon and I don’t really like to leave him here alone…
Me: And what were you thinking I might do? {BABYSIT????? - didn’t say it though!]
Patient: Dunno really. Maybe send him to hospital so he could be looked after.
The conversation didn’t last a lot longer than that….
January 14th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I was always led to believe that the Police surgeon was responsible for looking after the health of people that had been taken into custody. But by James posting on 04 Jan this seems to no longer be the case.
Not be long before it gets around the criminal fraternity that once they have pulled a job get drunk and stay drunk and the police will not arrest you.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Poor you! I really feel for people who have to work in the health service, police, etc on new years eve - one of the few advantages of being an OT is that by the time we see the patients on the acute ward at my hospital we’re at a point where we’re looking at what needs to be done to discharge them, so at least they’ve usually been tidied up a bit, sobered up, got less abusive, etc (with the exception of the little old ladies with UTIs, who for some reason get worse in the abusive occasionally violent stakes before they get better!?)
Back to a question that was asked higher up in the replies that crossed my mind when reading the post - did someone really fall OUT of a jacuzzi? Is that physically possible or was it just an example of caller stupidity??