Viewing 8 posts - 81 through 88 (of 88 total)
  • Think before dialling 999
  • whatnobeer
    Free Member

    Had to call 999 a few times myself. The first time was when, while out on a road ride my mum crashed and knocked herself out and stopped breathing. I was so freaked out I could barely work the phone and ended up getting a passer by who had stopped to help to do it.

    The 2nd time was when a friend of mine had a few too many drinks and just flipped. He attacked me then when I over powered him, he ran off, then returned and started to headbutt the pavement and parked cars. Called the Police for his own safety. They then got an ambulance over. Good thing they did, he collapsed just after the arrived and it turned out he’d given himself bleeding on the brain.

    Final time was when my van broke down on a stretch of motorway that had been narrowed to 2 lanes with big concrete blocks, so no access to the hard shoulder. My van was stuck right in the middle of one of the two lanes and was definitely a major hazard. Very nearly got rear ended quite a few times. Quick call to the police to come and slow the traffic down while I waited on the recovery truck.

    poly
    Free Member

    Drac – Moderator
    Poly you’re looking far too much into it’s not suggesting anything like you said. If you watch the clip it’s about people calling 999 for silly things. Would love to give you a longer answer but must get ready for work.

    with all due respect I think you’ve missed my point:

    – you won’t convert the selfish / crazy with a video (and certainly not on here)
    – you will make the ‘rest of us’ a little more hesitant about calling.

    I am not suggesting that ANY of those situations did not warrant 999 – but where it was called the caller ‘felt bad’ for wasting people’s time.

    racefaceec90
    Full Member

    about 5-6 months ago i had just come out of sainsbury’s.i saw that my phone was calling 999 😯 (i have no idea how it did so,as i had locked the phone).i quick sharpish turned my phone off. am still baffled as to how my phone managed to dial 999 whilst in my pocket locked.

    apologies to the emergency service for that 😳

    Drac
    Full Member

    with all due respect I think you’ve missed my point:
    – you won’t convert the selfish / crazy with a video (and certainly not on here)
    – you will make the ‘rest of us’ a little more hesitant about calling.

    No I didn’t. I give people on here more credit than some of the individuals in that video and has proved evident by the disbelief of those examples. I mentioned that in my very first post.

    Why would it make you hesitant about ringing for a genuine casualty?

    I went on speed awareness course last year and the guy quoted a phone number that can be used (instead of 999) to summon the emergency services which will record your location automatically rather than you needing to describe it yourself as you do with 999 apparently.
    Anyone know what that number is, I can’t remember. or did I dream that ?

    Where to begin.

    Police there is 101 which has been rolled out of nationwide.

    NHS they’re busy rolling out 111 across the country.

    If you ring 999 on a landline all ambulance services will have you location and most if not all will activate a vehicle to that location as soon as the answer the call.

    Fire I’m not aware of alternative number for them.

    Thanks for the praise people it’s nice to know we’re appreciate, a bit of cliche but it’s what I’m paid to do.

    poly
    Free Member

    Why would it make you hesitant about ringing for a genuine casualty?

    What I am telling you is that the “genuine users” I listed above were all reluctant to dial 999 to deal with the issues… they all had some sort of emergency which warranted getting help… there is a continual message in the media / side of vehicles / and now on here saying “don’t waste our time” what I am suggesting is I think your reasonable message is not getting to (and can’t really get to) the problem audience. What it does do though is send a message that you guys are all too busy unless my head is hanging off, someone is raping me at gun point or I am actually on fire; I think that is a dangerous message to send out. After all, if the number of calls go down guess what governments will do…

    Police there is 101 which has been rolled out of nationwide.

    NHS they’re busy rolling out 111 across the country.
    Neither number will work in Scotland.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Ah get you now, well yes there will be a few but I’m pretty sure it’s very few. NHS Direct, 111, GPs and others should and do use similar key phrases to tell people to call 999. I’ve been to one today who was described by his wife as breathless so the receptionist told them to ring 999. He had a chest infection starting so I rang his GP with my examination findings, his medical history and she prescribed meds for him based on that. So while he wasn’t a 999 case in the end the receptionist did right. We then saved him taking up a GP appointment by contacting his GP for him.

    Your kind of right but it really won’t be anywhere as bad as you think and sadly certain things get missed now due to how people describe over the phone. It’s certainly not a dangerous message to send out. We are being abused more and more that has a bigger effect on those needing an ambulance ending up suffering than someone not wanting to call 999 as they watched a youtube video.

    It does get to some of the problem audience, the cases in that video are the extreme but it gets peoples attention and that’s what it’s for. The campaign has ran for years in different formats it does work.

    After all, if the number of calls go down guess what governments will do…

    We have more than enough work to keep us going.

    Neither number will work in Scotland.

    Yeah they do like their own thing.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    Heart felt gratitude to the boys with blues and two-tones of all varieties. You do a tough job with an ever increasing number of muppets trying to make that harder (anyone else see Too scared to speed?). Witness tonight the person on the motorway this evening who pulled in front of a police car with its blues on and sat there for 30 seconds before she moved back over. It had been visible through my tinted glass for over a minute as before she pulled out. Sorry slightly ot rant but my sisters partner has just gone back as a paramedic on the ambulances so feeling even more supportive than usual.

    warton
    Free Member

    Drac, is that youtube video from an actual film? or is is just a PSA made to look like a film?

    EDIT: it’s a PSA…

Viewing 8 posts - 81 through 88 (of 88 total)

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