AMA ambulance emergency call taker

[iusedtohavechickens]

I work as an emergency call taker, any questions?

"Ideally not but if the person you're talking to doesn't know it's you and you feel ok to continue then it can be allowed."

Is this true? You can knowingly continue without telling them that it's you? I know at our GP if the receptionists recognise someone they have to tell them immediately and offer them a different person to speak to.

Hi op. I did your job in the 90's when targets were 8 minutes in cities etc or 14 minutes to rural areas for ambulances to arrive! We didn't have computer generated questions either, just a first aid book in front of us! We used to go third-manning with the crews occasionally too which was an eye-opener. Do you ever get to go out with the crews? I had the best time of my working career there for 5 years but sadly moved counties and the base was too far to travel to.

Rules are generally different in primary care to emergency/critical care for obvious reasons

@iusedtohavechickens have you ever had a call from a very young child?

Also interested in @Hollyhead 's question about major incidents.
I once witnessed a little girl run over by a van, I called 999 immediately before the family did, the family were told to hang up while they kept me as the first caller on the phone, I had to wade through the distraught family to check her breathing etc. Is that standard process?

I continued when I got a call from someone I knew (11 years as a emergency ambulance call handler)
It wasn't a family member it was actually the parent of someone I knew
You have to really - nobody else can take the call if it's busy and nobody is available

@Heyhoherewegoagain
Apologies if I missed your question. Each amb services does thing differently. Where I work we use the same system as the ones and as long as you have a ref number we can update the job as required but will still have to check that nothing has changed or got worse since the last call. If things have changed then we have to retriage x

I have always worked in caring professions, HCA, community nursing and foster care so have always been drawn to jobs with a caring role. I've always wanted to be in the ambulance service and now my youngest daughter has started school it seemed like a good time to get into it. X

I work in the call centre but ultimately it's a path to becoming a paramedic

All crew have cameras and all our amb have cctv. X

The call centre has made me realise just how many accidents there are in the road so I'm a more cautious driver now. Working in a call centre for 10-12 hours with a 39 min break doesn't really help healthy eating. I don't smoke or drink though x

Yes and mental health services need to be massively improved to support people before they get to the stage of drinking to help them. We I suppose are the sticking plaster for the lacking services.

Mental health for all age ranges is where the biggest overhaul is needed. We also need to help educate children now around when to use the emergency services as people using us as a gp are impacting the wait times of those in genuine need.

This thread made me cry.
Glad we have people like the OP.

Thank you for starting this thread OP. You do such important work.

DSIS was a call handler for several years. Her experience was different. I guess because of being in a different location. She did not get the high level of non emergency calls that you do. She had to deal with a huge number of emergency calls where there was no way of moving the patient, and there were no ambulances available. People died while waiting and after repeated calls. She had to leave the job as it was so distressing for her.

It must be obvious to you that the system is unsafe. Are you never tempted to whistleblow about what is happening?

We all take the information from the person calling unless they are not at scene. Our supervisors tell us if are calls are no longer required then we thank the person calling and clear the line and all the information received is duped into whatever call is still running x

I often wondered if I was doing the right thing but only because I was scared about the fact that someone's life depends on me. The process itself was long winded but made me feel more comfortable that if I wasn't up for the job I wouldn't have made it through!

@PaintAngst there is always a little bit of apprehension before taking the first call that it could be a serious one but typically it's not!

At my place we have extensive training in spotting the signs of sepsis as it's not always picked up in the questions. I have a couple of times had my seniors upgrade the response due to my concerns. If you suspect it you should always point it out and having a history of it is definitely worth mentioning if it happens again.

I've answered as well as I can, happy to answer any other questions you may have about my role x

Always happy to help, sometimes people just need someone to listen to them x

Sometimes if the situation is time critical we may not have time for this kind of delay. In heightened situations the person on the end of the line is unlikely to recognise your voice, we know who they are because we get their name x

Another ambulanceland person here.

I think EMA is the toughest job in the whole service, and one of the worst paid for what you do and how much of yourselves you have to give. Thank you.

@iusedtohavechickens

Thanks for taking the time to answer as many of the questions ive asked too.

Take care of yourself too

@iusedtohavechickens

Any advice tips ect for anybody potentially wanting to do NHS call centre work like you do ?