That is crazy.Why on earth would anyone do that? Don’t you be a paramedic to help people? I don’t know if you respond to your comments, but I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the icon style that you and a few of my other friends have. Do you know where you got it?
I am afraid to say that this type of thing does happen quite a lot in your service…… not to the extent of refusing a job, but many crews who want to be lazy or think that its not their turn will not be happy and moan to death about doing the job, but will still do it. Afterwards they will moan for days on end that they were screwed. However, that said….. like martin, i think there must be more to this story than that.
Wandered by through Blog Explosion, I think, and I love your blog.
I’m a police dispatcher in Alaska and it’s amazing the similar issues we face. This one, not so much, but try to send Officer Slug to a burglary call which requires paperwork *and* checking in evidence… maddening.
My local service as well, disappointed and saddened to hear of their ‘choice’. I appreciate it is a difficult job at times, but even so to refuse to turn out for an emergency is beyond belief, if they feel that way, that fairness should be incorporated into the ambulance routine then perhaps they are in the wrong job.
I just found your blog on a forums somewhere and spend about 4 or 5 hours reading back every single post. The one about the 14 year old dying and is father repeating “i told him not to” just made me cry. You should put this into a book and sell it.
The post i originally found your blog in was one about the wife discontent many americans and especially New Yorkers feel about their 911 operators. This reached a peak a couple weeks ago when the 911 tapes from septemeber 11th were released after a bitter court battle. I can’t seem to find a reason for the tapes not to be released in the first place (with the families blessings of course…). Perhaps it was the obvious unpreparedness of the operators for such an event?
First of all, 911 operators are the people who work for the phone companies and connect the calls. People like myself are “dispatchers” who work directly for the ambulance/fire/police services. The two jobs are completely different.
Was there a problem with the emergency services’ response to 9/11? I’m sure the call takers weren’t prepared for what happened — no-one was — but they would have been trained for a major incident. It does get to the stage where you become somewhat blaze about every day incidents (old people dying, traffic accidents and whatever) but I don’t think it will ever get to a stage when we will be saying “Oh, two 100 storey buildings collapsed after being hit by passenger jets? Fine, whatever, we’re on our way. Please send someone out to meet the ambulance.”
I see that the relatives want the tapes as some kind of last contact with the loved ones, and it’s a shame they weren’t granted that immediately. Red tape seems to get in the way of everything these days…
On many occasions, crews down here will phone/radio control and say “vehicle XYZ was next out..” or “XYZ are due off at 7.30 but we’ve just started, we’ll happily take the call so they’re not late off…”
On not one occasion has a crew actually REFUSED a call - I don’t think any crew in the country would be so daft as to do something like that!
Mike with reference to the 911 - in america they don’t operate like we do. Theres no 911 operator only dispatchers/communicators. 911 calls are all answered by police straight in, and then transfered to fire - for fire or ambulance calls.
April 14th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Shame its my local service , its an embarresment.
April 14th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
That is crazy.Why on earth would anyone do that? Don’t you be a paramedic to help people? I don’t know if you respond to your comments, but I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the icon style that you and a few of my other friends have. Do you know where you got it?
April 14th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=9962
April 14th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
I can’t help wondering if there is more to this story than the media are reporting.
April 15th, 2006 at 3:17 am
I am afraid to say that this type of thing does happen quite a lot in your service…… not to the extent of refusing a job, but many crews who want to be lazy or think that its not their turn will not be happy and moan to death about doing the job, but will still do it. Afterwards they will moan for days on end that they were screwed. However, that said….. like martin, i think there must be more to this story than that.
April 15th, 2006 at 5:17 am
Wandered by through Blog Explosion, I think, and I love your blog.
I’m a police dispatcher in Alaska and it’s amazing the similar issues we face. This one, not so much, but try to send Officer Slug to a burglary call which requires paperwork *and* checking in evidence… maddening.
April 15th, 2006 at 11:05 am
You bad bad man. I’m gonna end up spending hours on the avatar maker when I get back to uni.
April 15th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
My local service as well, disappointed and saddened to hear of their ‘choice’. I appreciate it is a difficult job at times, but even so to refuse to turn out for an emergency is beyond belief, if they feel that way, that fairness should be incorporated into the ambulance routine then perhaps they are in the wrong job.
Sage
April 16th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
I just found your blog on a forums somewhere and spend about 4 or 5 hours reading back every single post. The one about the 14 year old dying and is father repeating “i told him not to” just made me cry. You should put this into a book and sell it.
The post i originally found your blog in was one about the wife discontent many americans and especially New Yorkers feel about their 911 operators. This reached a peak a couple weeks ago when the 911 tapes from septemeber 11th were released after a bitter court battle. I can’t seem to find a reason for the tapes not to be released in the first place (with the families blessings of course…). Perhaps it was the obvious unpreparedness of the operators for such an event?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/nyregion/14tapes.html?_r=1&oref=login
I’d love to hear a post of your opinions on this.
some of the tapes…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8926416/
April 16th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
First of all, 911 operators are the people who work for the phone companies and connect the calls. People like myself are “dispatchers” who work directly for the ambulance/fire/police services. The two jobs are completely different.
Was there a problem with the emergency services’ response to 9/11? I’m sure the call takers weren’t prepared for what happened — no-one was — but they would have been trained for a major incident. It does get to the stage where you become somewhat blaze about every day incidents (old people dying, traffic accidents and whatever) but I don’t think it will ever get to a stage when we will be saying “Oh, two 100 storey buildings collapsed after being hit by passenger jets? Fine, whatever, we’re on our way. Please send someone out to meet the ambulance.”
I see that the relatives want the tapes as some kind of last contact with the loved ones, and it’s a shame they weren’t granted that immediately. Red tape seems to get in the way of everything these days…
April 17th, 2006 at 9:20 am
As A paramedic for beds and hearts, I can tell you that there was much more to this than the press made out!. The crew did not refuse the red call.
April 17th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
What really happened then? Tell us the real story!
April 18th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
On many occasions, crews down here will phone/radio control and say “vehicle XYZ was next out..” or “XYZ are due off at 7.30 but we’ve just started, we’ll happily take the call so they’re not late off…”
On not one occasion has a crew actually REFUSED a call - I don’t think any crew in the country would be so daft as to do something like that!
April 19th, 2006 at 1:28 am
Mike with reference to the 911 - in america they don’t operate like we do. Theres no 911 operator only dispatchers/communicators. 911 calls are all answered by police straight in, and then transfered to fire - for fire or ambulance calls.