Asking for multiple emergency services when dialing 999

[TurbostarFan]

A caller reports an emergency requiring multiple emergency services by dialing 999. They explain this to the operator. How do they know which control room to connect the call to first before either they relay the details onto the other services or pass the caller back to the operator so that they can connect the caller onto the other services? Should the control room pass the caller back to the operator then how do they determine the sequence of control rooms that the caller will need to speak to?

 

[Bletchleyite]

A caller reports an emergency requiring multiple emergency services by dialing 999. They explain this to the operator. How do they know which control room to connect the call to first before either they relay the details onto the other services or pass the caller back to the operator so that they can connect the caller onto the other services? Should the control room pass the caller back to the operator then how do they determine the sequence of control rooms that the caller will need to speak to?

You can't.

The way it works with the main three is thus:-

First rule: if something is on fire, you want the Fire Brigade regardless of anything else. If not go to the second rule.
Second rule: if someone is seriously hurt or ill, you want an ambulance regardless of anything else other than the first rule. If not go to the third rule. Exception to this rule would be if a major crime is presently ongoing such as a terrorist attack where controlling it may take priority over medical help to those already injured.
Third rule: you want the Police, or something else they dispatch such as mountain rescue.

Having picked the "main" service they can go on to request any of the others should they also be necessary, e.g. if you ring for an ambulance for a car crash which is blocking the road they'll also sort the Police (or HATOs) to deal with that part, or you ring for the fire brigade they'll request an ambulance as well if you report someone is trapped as odds on they'll need it once they have been got out.

It is a bit odd, and I've long taken the view that there should be a single network of call centres to which you describe what has happened rather than requesting a service and they dispatch what is needed.

 

[martinhazell]

It is a bit odd, and I've long taken the view that there should be a single network of call centres to which you describe what has happened rather than requesting a service and they dispatch what is needed.

This is what we have got in the IOM - the Emergency Services Joint Control Room. I know someone who worked up there, and it worked as you suggested. One call, multiple services dispatched simultaneously.

https://www.gov.im/news/2014/mar/14...0-years-of-helping-to-maintain-public-safety/

 

[TurbostarFan]

You can't.

The way it works with the main three is thus:-

First rule: if something is on fire, you want the Fire Brigade regardless of anything else. If not go to the second rule.
Second rule: if someone is seriously hurt or ill, you want an ambulance regardless of anything else other than the first rule. If not go to the third rule. Exception to this rule would be if a major crime is presently ongoing such as a terrorist attack where controlling it may take priority over medical help to those already injured.
Third rule: you want the Police, or something else they dispatch such as mountain rescue.

Having picked the "main" service they can go on to request any of the others should they also be necessary, e.g. if you ring for an ambulance for a car crash which is blocking the road they'll also sort the Police (or HATOs) to deal with that part, or you ring for the fire brigade they'll request an ambulance as well if you report someone is trapped as odds on they'll need it once they have been got out.

It is a bit odd, and I've long taken the view that there should be a single network of call centres to which you describe what has happened rather than requesting a service and they dispatch what is needed.

What happens if the telephone links between the services break down? Then the only way of getting the message passed from one service to the other will be to ask the caller to pass the message on themselves and then pass the caller to the operator so that they can do so.

 

[Bletchleyite]

What happens if the telephone links between the services break down? Then the only way of getting the message passed from one service to the other will be to ask the caller to pass the message on themselves and then pass the caller to the operator so that they can do so.

If the telephone lines between the services really did break down, which is very low in plausibility, someone in the primary service pulls out their mobile and rings 999 and requests the additional service.

Under no plausible circumstances would the individual be a go-between.

If that's broken down too...what kind of scenario are you envisaging? Nuclear attack? You're on your own, however the emergency services might normally be phoned.

 

[TurbostarFan]

If the telephone lines between the services really did break down, which is very low in plausibility, someone in the primary service pulls out their mobile and rings 999 and requests the additional service.

Under no plausible circumstances would the individual be a go-between.

If that's broken down too...what kind of scenario are you envisaging? Nuclear attack? You're on your own, however the emergency services might normally be phoned.

Oh OK, that's a fair point. I'm not envisaging anything to be honest. Would another option be for someone in the primary service to dial 999 from a landline phone if still available?

 

[Randomer]

Yes calling 999 from a landline would work but Airwave (national emergency services tetra based radio system) also has inter agency talk groups that could be used although not immediately. The direct lines are also redundant over separate phone circuits as well so very unlikely to fail.

Contingencies for loss of communications exist and are in theory practised and rehearsed. Along with alternate control rooms, if for example an ambulance control room fails for some reason calls will be transferred to another service and passed by various methods to the ambulance service in question (obviously this is nothing like as efficient).

At one point the previous Labour government wanted to merge control functions into regional centres combining fire, police and ambulance but for various reasons this failed. There were some questions about these becoming a single point of failure which were never addressed publicly before the scheme was pulled (with some centre already having been built).

 

[TurbostarFan]

Yes calling 999 from a landline would work but Airwave (national emergency services tetra based radio system) also has inter agency talk groups that could be used although not immediately. The direct lines are also redundant over separate phone circuits as well so very unlikely to fail.

Contingencies for loss of communications exist and are in theory practised and rehearsed. Along with alternate control rooms, if for example an ambulance control room fails for some reason calls will be transferred to another service and passed by various methods to the ambulance service in question (obviously this is nothing like as efficient).

At one point the previous Labour government wanted to merge control functions into regional centres combining fire, police and ambulance but for various reasons this failed. There were some questions about these becoming a single point of failure which were never addressed publicly before the scheme was pulled (with some centre already having been built).

Awesome thanks for your post.

 

[Busaholic]

Don't forget that for some of us in coastal regions the Coastguard is also reached by 999: I did have cause on one occasion a few years ago to contact them when I saw a flare at night, but it turned out, fortunately, to be a false alarm.