Response times & ambulances firegeezer on 04 Mar 2008 08:49 am
Ambulance Sent 51 Miles The Wrong Way
IN THE UK, THE FEARS GENERATED BY DISPATCH CONSOLIDATION are coming true.
18 months ago the counties’ ambulance services were combined into large, regional services and lately the local dispatch centers have been shut down in favor of distant facilities serving a much larger area. People have been complaining that somebody 100 miles away cannot possibly be familiar enough with the territory to dispatch adequately.
The most recent example of this occurred in Oxford when a 14-yr.-old girl collapsed at a skate park in Grove. But when someone called 9-9-9 for an ambulance, it was dispatched to a skate park in Grove, Bedfordshire, more than 50 miles away.
While waiting for an ambulance that wasn’t coming, the girl went into respiratory failure and had to be rescusitated by a police officer that was on the scene. After 45 minutes went by, the police called once again for an ambulance. One finally arrived one hour and eight minutes after the initial call was placed.
Police Officer Sue Harris
The girl’s guardian angel (Mail photo)
Thanks to the presence of the trained police officer, the young girl did survive. But the citizens are now doubly worried about what will happen when the regional fire dispatch center begins operating later this year in Hampshire. It will be responsible for dispatching fire calls for an 8-county region.
The Oxford Mail has the STORY.
on 04 Mar 2008 at 11:26 am 1.Neil said …
My immediate question is: Why weren’t the police officers on-scene asking the dispatchers about the ambulances’s ETA within a 10 minute timeframe (or some other number less than 45 minutes) and clarifying the matter?
on 05 Mar 2008 at 12:22 pm 2.Alison said …
Indeed the facts of this story are not exactly as they would appear. It is worth noting that the girl in question was conscious and breathing and left under her own steam when the crew arrived on scene. It is also worth noting that this error can in no way be linked to the changes in the geography of the Ambulance service, I am not sure how that conclusion might have been drawn but this is not the case.