In our control room, teams of emergency medical
dispatchers answer 999 calls and send our staff and vehicles out
across Greater London to treat patients.
Answering these calls is not always a matter
of life or death—but as an emergency medical dispatcher the
way you listen and interpret each call will make a vital
difference to the response our patients receive.
When you receive a 999 call, you are
responsible for recording the right information, often under
difficult circumstances, before alerting and informing frontline
staff.
You enter details on to a computer system
which categorises the seriousness of the illness or injury, to
ensure that the most critical patients receive the fastest
response.
There are two elements to the work of our
control room—talking to patients on the phone and coordinating
ambulance staff and vehicles. You are trained to do both.
What training do I get?
We provide extensive training to ensure that
you have the skills, knowledge and confidence to be able to handle
999 calls.
Training is modular and you will not move on
to the next stage until you have passed written, practical and
workplace assessments.
The first three months of training are
intensive, with a mixture of classroom theory, practical
application of that theory, and observation shifts in the control
room. You will be given one-to-one supervision before you
begin handling calls on your own.
Your first four weeks will be spent training
to handle calls and follow our internationally recognised
questioning protocol. Once you have passed the assessments, you
will spend two weeks in our control room answering calls under
supervision.
After a number of supervised shifts you will
be assessed on whether you are able to handle calls on your own.
You will then spend four weeks putting your new skills into
practice.
At the end of this period you will go back to
the classroom to begin learning how to dispatch ambulance staff and
vehicles.
This training consists of a week of exercises
followed by a week working in the control room sending
out resources whilst being supervised. When you display
competence at this stage you will begin working on your own,
marking the end of your initial three-month training programme.
After your first year you will be assessed
and, if successful, you will then be re-graded to the next level of
emergency medical dispatcher.
Further career development opportunities exist
for you to enhance your skills and move up through the four grades
of dispatchers before potentially taking on responsibility for a
team of dispatchers covering an area of Greater London.
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What benefits will I receive?
Current salaries during training are £18,156
rising to £23,861 following successful completion of the end
of first year assessment. There are also annual
increments to £27,569.
You will also be able to take advantage of
other benefits:
- A minimum 27 days' holiday each year,
increasing with service.
- New NHS employees from April 2008 will be
eligible to join the Amended NHS Pension Scheme which provides
membership to a final salary scheme with pension linked to pay near
retirement. Other benefits include life assurance, dependent
benefits, voluntary early retirement, ill-health retirement
benefits and the option to increase retirement benefits.
- Access to a round-the-clock employee
assistance programme.
- Personal and professional development and
training opportunities.
- Interest-free travel season ticket loan.
- Childcare voucher scheme.
- Access to NHS discounts, offering NHS employees a range
of money-saving deals.
- Access to occupational health and counselling
services.
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How do I apply?
We are currently recruiting to this role -
details can be found on the
current vacancies section of our website.
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