[Accyexplorer]

I thought I'd start this thread after reading a couple of (heart felt) comments from members who ( in their moment of need) felt let down by Emergency services.
Personally I've not had a bad experience but I'm curious to hear your views.
In times of crisis, information and support must be readily available and easy to access for those who need it IMHO.
While I praise the bravery of emergency workers,procedures in areas including communications,response times need to be improved (also my opinion).

After ringing 999 callers are asked a series of questions which are based on the initial query as to why an ambulance is required. The questions link to other questions and depending on how the questions are answered depends on the grading of the call.
Currently the ambulance service use several grades of call, ranging from a Red1 response (immediately life threatening) to Green4 (non-emergency, non-life threatening). Each different grading has a different response time allocated to it, as follows:

· Red 1 – Immediately life threatening call, such as cardiac arrest, requiring a defib. Response time: 8 minutes from call received and 19 minutes for conveying resource to scene.
· Red 2 – Life threatening call, such as cardiac chest pains. Response time: 8 minutes from call coding and 19 minutes for a conveying resource to scene.
· Green 1 – Serious, but not life threatening. Response time of 20 minutes from call received.
· Green 2 – Serious, but not life threatening and with no serious clinical need: Response time of 30 minutes of call received.
· Green 3 – Non-life threatening non-emergency call. Telephone assessment within 20 minutes of call received.
· Green 4 – Non-life threatening non-emergency call. Telephone assessment within 60 minutes of call received.

As you can see, not all 999 calls to the ambulance service will automatically get an ambulance attendance. Green 3 and Green 4 calls will be further triaged and assessed by a health care professional, usually a Paramedic or Nurse. These calls often result in self-care advice but the clinician has the ability to request an ambulance to attend so can re-grade the calls as required.

Good or bad,
What are your thoughts,experiences with our ambulance service??