A cub scout leader, who trains his cubs to call 999, left a comment on one of my posts asking for a 999 “script” of sorts to assist with this. I think this is a very good idea, since if everyone knew what to expect when they called 999, it would be far less stressful both for them and us, and we’d probably get the ambulances out quicker and certainly make the calls shorter. Apparently the average person only calls for an ambulance once in their lifetime (I have already called for one twice, both before I started working there — once for a girlfriend who had an asthma attack, and once for a rather drunken accident I experienced in my younger, more frivolous days) and on Eastenders characters find it sufficient to bellow “15 Albert Square, ambulance, NAAAH!” and hang up, so it’s no wonder callers are thrown by the Nee Naw Service’s procedures.
Anyway, here’s a copy and paste job of my reply to the cub leader!
The way a call is taken varies a bit from area to area, but here’s what we say in London:
Me: Ambulance Service, what’s the address of the emergency?
Caller: 1 High Street, E8 (Caller needs to give at least the road name and either the post code or the name of the local area. If they don’t know where they are, tell them to ring from a callbox or a landline rather than a mobile as the call can be traced.)
Me: And what is the telephone number you’re calling from?
Caller: 07999 999999 (this can usually be traced too, so not that important, but try to get them to learn their numbers.)
Me: What’s the problem? Tell me exactly what’s happened?
Caller: There’s an old man with chest pains. (They need to give a reason for an ambulance, just asking someone to call an ambulance without telling them what is wrong might cause a delay).
Me: Are you with him now?
Caller: Yes. (It helps if the caller is with the patient, as we need to know some things about the patient, but it’s not essential).
Me: How old is he (approximately)?
Caller: About seventy.
Me: Is he conscious? (We ask this whatever has happened, even if it’s just a sprained ankle, it’s one of those over cautious things! I’m guessing some children wouldn’t understand the word “conscious” so it might be a good idea to teach them — when I get someone who doesn’t understand it on line I usually rephrase it as “Are they responding to you at all?” or ask “Are they awake?”, and if they say “no” I ask “can you wake them up?”.
Caller: Yes.
Me: Is he breathing?
Caller: Yes.
Me: Thank you. Now I just need to ask a few questions, this won’t delay help at all, it will be arranged while we’re talking…
At this point, we have all the information that is needed to send an ambulance. In practice it might have been sent as early as when the caller said the man had chest pains. The remainder of the call is to give the call a priority (if it is going into a queue for an ambulance, we send to the most urgent calls first), find out if there’s anything that needs to be done whilst waiting for the ambulance, and give the crew a bit more detail whilst they are (hopefully) on their way.
Next follows a bunch of questions which vary according to what has happened to the patient. I won’t go into detail here, but the most important thing for the cubs to find out is if the patient has any of what we call priority symptoms, which are:
* Difficulty breathing
* Reduction in consciousness (”not completely awake”)
* Severe bleeding (bleeding that can’t be controlled with a bandage, spurting or pouring out, etc)
* Chest pain
Tell them if they don’t know the answer to any of the other questions just say “I don’t know” (or find out the answer if they can) and not to guess. Some of the questions might seem a bit irrelevant at times — we ask them to make absolutely certain that something *hasn’t* happened (eg. if someone has dislocated their shoulder we ask if they have any serious bleeding, to which people often reply “Are you mad? Dislocated shoulders don’t bleed!” but of course if they’ve fallen they may be bleeding somewhere else!)
The call either ends with the standard closing phrase, which is:
“Help is being arranged. Don’t let him have anything to eat or drink. Watch him closely. Put any family pets away. If possible, gather his medications and write down the name of his doctor. Unlock the door, turn on any outside lights and send someone to meet the ambulance. If his condition worsens before help arrives, call us back immediately for further instructions”.
Or, the call taker will give basic instructions for what to do while you are waiting — usually instructions about patient positioning (if they are unconscious), resuscitation, controlling bleeding, what to do when someone is having a fit, how to deliver a baby, stopping someone choking. Often the call taker will stay on line for this sort of call until the ambulance gets there, especially if the caller is a child. They don’t need to worry about this until it happens as the caller taker will assume they’ve never had any first aid training and start from the beginning.
If they’ve asked for more than one service (eg police and ambulance) tell them to stay on the line after the ambulance hang up. We do call the police ourselves if we think it is necessary, but the police have their own specific questions, so like to speak to the callers themselves if they can.
