We tweeted live from our control room on
Thursday 4 October to show the range of 999 emergency calls we
receive.
From midday to 6pm and from 6pm to midnight, the work of call
takers Juliet and Sam was broadcast on Twitter.
As well as showing the difficult and distressing situations our
call takers deal with over the phone each shift, the
tweetathon also demonstrated that a lot of 999 calls received
aren't so serious and could be handled more appropriately by other
healthcare professionals.
Find out more about:
Top five Q&As
The tweetathon generated a lot of interest on
Twitter and many wanted to know more. Here are answers to the top
five most common questions we received.
- How many calls did we take
yesterday?
We took just over 4,700 emergency calls yesterday. Frontline staff
attended 2,976 incidents.
- What’s the difference between a call
taker and a dispatcher?
A call taker answers 999
calls and finds out the severity of the patient’s condition. A
dispatcher allocates appropriate frontline resources, such as
ambulances or fast response cars, to the patient. Both call takers
and dispatchers are known as Emergency Medical Dispatchers.
- How many call takers are there per
shift?
On a normal day we can have as many as 36
staff taking 999 calls. Between 70 and 80 staff are working in the
control room at any time.
- Are we planning any future tweetathons
in other parts of the Service?
Yes. We’d like to
tweet live with one of our ambulance crews or single responders.
Watch this space.
- Are there any vacancies in the control
room?
See our current vacancies page to find out if we’re
looking for more emergency medical dispatchers to work in our
control room. .
The two call takers - Juliet and Sam
Juliet was followed taking calls from 12pm to
6pm. During this time she took 46 emergency calls. Watch her short
film:
Sam was followed taking calls from 6pm to 12am.
During this time he took 42 emergency calls. Watch his short
film:
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