Have you ever watched TV dramas, where someone dials 999 and shouts "We need an ambulance, now! High Street!" and then hangs up? Annoying, isn't it?
Have you ever stopped to consider how many 'High Streets' there are in the UK? How the hell is the call-taker supposed to know where you are? OK, if you ring from a landline, they can trace the location, but if it's a mobile phone, the patient will probably be dead before they figure out where you are. How is the call taker supposed to know what's wrong with the patient? Is it a broken leg, or a severed jugular with claret pumping all over the place?
That jolly nice chap, Mark Myers, over at the Nee Naw Blog has come up with ten commandments for people ringing the emergency services, and I strongly suggest that you read, digest and attempt to remember them. It might just save someone's life.
12 October 2006
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4 comments:
I called the police for something at work the other week and got a call handling service glad it wasnt an emergency was on hold for 10 mins grrrr :-(
So you called the police on 999 for a NON-emergency? Should have used 101, seriously.
Dear 'unknown', yes you are quite right that 101 should be used for non-emergency calls, but this post was made in 2006 and the 101 number only came into existence in 2012.
'Anonymous' doesn't say that he or she called 999, it just says that he or she called the Police. Maybe they rang the local number.
Nowadays, 101 is definitely the one to call :)
Sorry, 2011, not 2012.
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