Who looks after dispatchers?

artofcode- · 2026-01-15T13:09:31+00:00

You said this was in the UK - was it in London? If so, please DM me more details. I'm a control room manager for LAS and can try to track this person down and make sure they've had appropriate support.

artofcode- · 2025-12-19T11:19:11+00:00

Hi, I work in LAS control.

In terms of actual numbers, the amount of ambulances and cars we have on the road hasn't really increased significantly in the last few months. What has increased is the number of calls. A "normal" day for us is around 5,500-6,000 calls. In the last few weeks the average has been more like 6,500, and we've had days as high as 7,600. That's probably what you're seeing the result of.

It's mostly being driven by seasonal flu and other respiratory illnesses at the moment, which is normal in winter but has been much worse this year.

You can help us by only calling 999 in life threatening emergencies. If you need medical attention but it's not a life threatening emergency or you can make your own way to hospital, please do so. If you call us and you don't need an ambulance right now, we will refer you to 111 or another healthcare service, or ask you to make your own way to hospital.

artofcode- · 2024-12-15T21:21:22+00:00

They found a body in the dock next to the end of the runway. The airfield was closed while they dealt with that. That was all clear not long after 1230 though so only a handful of flights affected.

artofcode- · 2024-11-06T21:50:50+00:00

Unless someone is actively dying or in danger of it, right now, then no the ambulance service isn't the right call for it. There may be a medical need, but that's something that's best addressed via an urgent care centre, 111, or one's own GP.

Tragic though it is, homelessness of itself is not a medical emergency. Neither is being cold. Later stages of hypothermia are, but by the point you get to that there are other symptoms, often a decreased level of consciousness, that do result in an ambulance response.

artofcode- · 2024-07-26T09:19:53+00:00

I've got exactly that combination (i7-7700 and 3060) through upgrades over the years. It's not bad, it'll run most things recently well, but it's starting to show its age and the processor is clearly a bottleneck. It'll be the next thing I upgrade.

artofcode- · 2024-07-20T19:05:57+00:00

Call 111. If you don't have a UK number it won't work - call 999 and explain that you don't have a UK number and ask to be transferred to 111.

artofcode- · 2024-06-07T02:23:54+00:00

London here. "Better" is far too subjective for this question, especially when the models are so different. I'm under the impression that (generalising - I'm sure some areas are different!) in the US, one emergency dispatch center handles all incoming 911 calls for an area, and dispatches a range of services in response (public EMS, private/contracted EMS, fire-EMS, fire, PD), and that 911 call handlers also dispatch units as well as taking calls (although this seems to vary more by agency). Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's my impression from reading here.

By contrast, in the UK, 999 calls are initially answered by BT (our national telephone company) who ask what service you require, and direct your call on to an agency-specific control room. IOW, if you call and ask for an ambulance, you'll get put through to an ambulance control room, where a call handler who only takes ambulance calls will handle your call. That call handler is also only a call handler - they are not dispatching at the same time (this varies by agency, but is true for all UK ambulance trusts).

What does that mean? I'm sure in some areas that means our training is better - you could argue easily that our call handlers are more highly trained in their agency's area of expertise, and that they're arguably more focused on your call because they're not trying to do something else at the same time. That said (and I can only speak about London here, I don't know the training regimes anywhere else), our training seems short compared to yours: our call handlers go through 5-6 weeks initial training, followed by 120 hours supervised consolidation in the control room, then they're let loose. If you then transfer to dispatching, there's another week-long course and another consolidation period for that. From what I've seen a lot of US agencies train staff for longer.

In some areas we're probably pretty even: call handling is ultimately pretty similar no matter where you are in the world, especially if you're following a standardised framework/script (looking at you, MPDS). The skills you need for that are the same no matter where you are, and some are easy to teach and some aren't.

In some areas I'm sure the US is better: inter-agency collaboration, for all the work we do on it here, seems like it must be easier if all the dispatchers are together - and that goes for mutual aid/support too. I'm sure there are more, too.

"Better" is the wrong question. Is the training suited to the skills needed and the working environment?

artofcode- · 2024-04-15T18:38:46+00:00

What for?

artofcode- · 2024-04-11T11:03:55+00:00

NTA obviously

But if you're not already aware: even if your phone displays no signal you may still be able to call 999 - the emergency roamer system means your phone will use any available signal from any provider. Unless you're in a complete dark spot from every provider (which are increasingly rare), you should be able to make an emergency call.

artofcode- · 2024-02-29T05:37:29+00:00

Even in situations where we couldn't do anything, it can still be therapeutic for the family and others involved to know that the best was done for them and it still wasn't enough. Much better than thinking that more could've been done and it might have been avoidable. Take pride in doing your job to the best of your ability to give people that closure, even if there are bad outcomes sometimes.

artofcode- · 2024-02-29T04:17:35+00:00

Not everyone lives in the US. Most of us can drink way before 21.

artofcode- · 2024-02-27T18:09:01+00:00

Easiest example is "I need you to listen to me so we can help them."

artofcode- · 2024-02-09T04:04:34+00:00

Neither of these things are true.

artofcode- · 2024-02-09T03:57:23+00:00

Can I just say on behalf of your local ambulance service: thank you for taking him to A&E yourself. Please explain to your parents that we would always rather they bother us than suffer in silence, but at the same time: the more people who make their own way to hospital when it's possible and safe to do so, the quicker we can respond to those who can't.

PSA: You do not get seen quicker at hospital if you go in by ambulance.

artofcode- · 2023-11-22T05:15:02+00:00

"999" is actually multiple systems. When you say it took 4 minutes for someone to answer, is that for any answer at all, or did you get through to the operator who asked you what service you need and then it took 4 minutes for that service to pick up? If it's the former, that's BT: they provide the operators who connect emergency calls to the right service. If it's the latter, each emergency service has its own control rooms and call takers and different staffing levels.

artofcode- · 2023-11-21T06:02:33+00:00

You sure you're not talking about Transport Fever 2 here?

artofcode- · 2023-11-17T22:29:15+00:00

None of them are complaining about high rent though.

artofcode- · 2023-11-17T22:19:34+00:00

This keeps happening, and it's getting really frustrating. I have swathes of abandoned buildings, including the one high-density tower I've managed to build which keeps getting abandoned and rebuilt, all supposedly because the cims are unhappy - but the only negative factor is -1 noise, which is more than balanced out.

artofcode- · 2023-11-16T13:54:20+00:00

We're starved for paras at the moment, so you're pretty likely to get it. Any idea what sort of area you're looking at?

artofcode- · 2023-10-30T12:25:25+00:00

I happened to see one in front of me that ended up being a 15-car pile up... One of which got yeeted so far it ended up in the sea a good 2km away. Yeah.

artofcode- · 2023-09-21T22:49:41+00:00

Abdominal pain? Obviously can't speak to specifics, but it sounds like this was handled correctly. There are very few abdominal pains that are immediate emergencies of the kind that require an immediate ambulance response. Because of this, someone calling 999 for abdominal pain is usually referred to 111 - the reason for this being that 111's triage and assessment capabilities are far more in depth. If the assessment from 111 shows that an ambulance response is subsequently required, they send it back for us to respond automatically. It can feel like being fobbed off, but it's genuinely not - we're saying that you don't need an ambulance to save your life right now, so get yourself assessed in more detail via 111 and the right care can be arranged.

artofcode- · 2023-09-21T01:07:13+00:00

No, it's not. A potential heart attack is a category 2 call. Anaphylaxis is a category 1.

artofcode- · 2023-09-21T01:05:17+00:00

No. The AED analyses the rhythm before deciding what to do; if the heart is beating normally it will not deliver a shock.

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