AMA ambulance emergency call taker

[iusedtohavechickens]

I work as an emergency call taker, any questions?

Thanks!

Do you ever get to know what happened to people afterwards?

What percentage of calls are for mental rather than physical illness?

Do you work covering a city/town or rurally?

If you could tell the general public something, what would it be?

Someone I know was knocked off his bike last week, called the ambulance service and they wouldn’t come to him as they said it wasn’t life threatening. He has to get a taxi with a broken femur (and is now in hospital).

Is it common for ambulance services to do this? We were pretty shocked by it to be honest.

How are you? As in are you OK? It must be so stressful.

Oh and thank you.

I had a suspected stroke and was waiting 6 hours for an ambulance. There was no option of driving to a&e.
Realistically, what else would you have suggested? It was a very frightening time and it took 3 months to fully recover.

Following with interest!

I did this job a few years ago. Best job I ever had and sometimes wish I had stayed at it. I delivered a baby over the phone and they named it after me.

What’s the most unusual/embarrassing call you’ve ever taken?

What is your educational / employment background? Do you have medical training?

Do you get any support after receiving a very distressing call?

whats the none emergency examples @iusedtohavechickens and are they common even if its ment for emergencys ?

Roughly what percentage of your calls are “traditional” medical emergencies requiring an ambulance such as a stroke, heart attack, baby arriving quickly? Of the rest, what sort of services do they need (e.g., they’re suffering from a MH crisis, they’re lonely or confused, etc.)?

Are you allowed to deal with calls from someone you know?

We were told similar with my dd and her badly snapped-off-at-the-end tibia. She had to be moved in agony into the boot of my car and driven to A and E. Thank fuck we didn't make her bone move and damage her nerve or tendons etc as she made a full recovery but bloody hell do I get annoyed watching Ambulance type TV shows where they go out to every tom, Dick and drunken twat Harry...

Is there any way of tracing a call taker after the fact? My DH died 3 years ago and I still have so much guilt over the way I spoke to the 999 call handler – she was talking me through CPR while I waited for the paramedics who ages to arrive and come in (it was during the first lockdown) and I was shouting at the 999 operator about it. I feel awful for it and I would really love to apologise and thank her.

She will know. Please don't worry about this. Sorry about your DH

Do you react differently if a HCP rings ?

What sort of skills make a good call handler? how do you switch off after dealing with traumatic calls?

Seems the long wait to have your call answered is part of the role... 🙄

I used to work as a paramedic. Do you still call it a "99" (if you do, you'll know what that is!)

@iusedtohavechickens I think the idea is that you answer the questions….

Unfortunately we don't know what happens to them once they have been taken to hospital. I would love to know that they are all ok!

We have quite a lot of mental health calls and some days they seem to outweigh all the other types of calls. For me the mental health calls are the hardest.