The journey of a 999 call

Ever wondered what happens when you dial 999 and how an ambulance may arrive at your door?

We're taking you through the process using a typical incident as an example so you can understand how many people can be involved in saving a life.

Is the patient breathing?

A 999 call is received at 11.12 am following a motorbike accident in Cumbria.

999 calls made in the North West can be answered at any of the three emergency operations centres (EOCs) in Lancashire, Manchester, or Liverpool. The call handler, Eleanor, who is in Lancashire, goes through a list of questions with the caller to determine how seriously injured the patient is.

Fortunately, the patient is awake and breathing. The call is coded as a category 2 emergency with the description: “Trapped under car – come off motorbike.”

I’ve got another job for you.

As soon as the location of the incident is established and the call is categorised, it is automatically transferred to the dispatcher who looks after the area via our computer system.

Today, it’s Sairah, and she will allocate ambulances to incidents based on the order they came in and their seriousness. So, a category 1 call will always get priority over a category 2 call.

Currently, the motorbike crash is the only job on her list; however, it still takes a couple of minutes before an ambulance crew becomes available. She sends the details of the patient over to the crew, Vanessa and Lauren, and they begin to make their way to the patient.

Major trauma

Just across the room from Sairah’s dispatch desk at our Lancashire EOC is a team that looks after our more specialist resources. This includes our advanced paramedics, Hazardous Area Response Team, and air ambulances.

Graham and Rob control the air desk. As well as getting information from dispatchers like Sairah, they spend time going through the list of waiting incidents on our computer systems to look for any that might need a specialist response.

They have already sent a helicopter from the Blackpool airbase to the scene of the motorbike crash.

In this case, they spotted the description of the incident and the remote location and knew an air ambulance would be required. Rob listens in to the 999 call to determine whether the patient might need blood, in which case they would send another helicopter to provide extra support.

On scene

The air ambulance crew, Richard and Adam, are the first to arrive, shortly followed by the ambulance three minutes later. They assess the patient and see he has a crushed left arm, broken ribs, and low blood pressure.

They give him oxygen and pain relief. He has suspected life-threatening injuries – known as major trauma. The closest hospital with a major trauma centre is Preston.

Depending on the injuries or location, often the air ambulance crew provides enhanced care to the patient on scene and then leaves, allowing the patient to be taken to hospital in a road ambulance.

However, in this case, because of the distance to the nearest major trauma unit, the patient will be flown there in the air ambulance.

Pre-alert

Back to Graham in our emergency operations centre (EOC) – he contacts Preston Hospital to tell them to expect the incoming patient. This means a medical team from the hospital can meet the helicopter as it lands and take the patient straight to receive further treatment.

It takes 18 minutes to fly the patient to the landing pad, at which point our job is over.

That’s not all

We deal with over 3,000 incidents every day, each with different levels of complexity.

We have supervisors on hand to help staff with all eventualities, and other medical staff monitor incidents and can move patients up the priority list if needed, all to ensure we can get help to those who need it as quickly as possible.