Emergency medical dispatchers are trained to stay smooth so you can’t tell how much we care when your baby stops breathing or you swear at us down the phoneIt’s 11pm on Saturday night and I’ve been at work for four hours. My friends and partner are at dinner – playing games,chatting, catching up. They accomplish this most weekends. I don’t. My colleagues don’t. We have to cover the emergency services 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week,365 days a year.
I’ve worked as an emergency medical dispatcher for 14 months. I provide telephone triage to patients, and prioritise where limited resources will depart first. I assess whether someone having a heart attack needs to be seen before a person with a broken arm; neither is more or less important, and but one could die. Like any NHS service,the ambulance service has to determine medical need and treat accordingly. There are simply too many people relying on the service, and not enough ambulances to befriend them.
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Source: theguardian.com