Two extremes

It's 2.30am, the control room is quiet, just the low hum of the air-conditioning unit can be heard. Then I hear a 'bleep' as a call drops into my ear. "Ambulance emergency, what's the..." I'm interrupted by a panicking woman, who tells me that there's been a crash outside her house down a dark lane. After I manage to get the address, I inform her that we have dispatched an ambulance, and she explains all she knows. Given that she was woken up by a huge crash and dialled 999 immediately, she doesn't know much. Looking out of her bedroom window, all she can see is a single light shining up to the sky. She thinks it's a motorcycle, so I update the crew. It's very important that the crew know as much as possible before they get to the scene, so I ask the caller to go outside and tell me what she can see. She's phoning from the landline so I call her back on her mobile. Frustratingly, it cuts out as she's running down the lane so I phone back. When she answers, she sounds very distressed. There is a car, upside down, and she can hear screaming. This is good, because if you're screaming, you're conscious and breathing. I'd be very worried if there was nothing but silence coming from the car. All the while, I updated the crew of everything the caller was telling me. About 30 seconds later, I heard the lovely sound of sirens. The caller confirmed that this was the ambulance, so she hung up.

The dispatchers kept receiving updates from the crew, as well as the fire brigade and police. I was also keeping tabs on the job, and it transpired that the car was a Ford Fiesta, driven by a 36 year old male, who tragically died on the scene. There were 3 passengers, all of whom were taken by ambulance to the nearest A&E department.

This call didn't 'get to me' like I thought it would. I was saddened by the fact that a life was lost, but I didn't let it affect me. That's a good thing, because the very next call really shouldn't have needed a 999 response. It was an elderly gentleman with earache! That's what NHS Direct is for, or the out of hours GP services - to prevent ambulances being dispatched for very minor problems, which then clog up the A&E departments. Of course I sympathised with the patient, because he must have been in an awful lot of pain - I've experienced more than my fair share of ear infections - but what could an ambulance crew honestly do for him? I transferred his call to our Clinical Advice Desk, who advised him to call his out of hours GP.