Ambulance crisis: 999 call handler's letter reveals staff are at breaking point

AN ambulance call centre worker has painted an astonishing picture of a service at breaking point.

In a heart-rending letter, the worker reveals how staff deal with traumatised people during gruelling 12-hour shifts.

The 999 handler claims the call centre life-savers are paid less than shop workers for dealing with the public 24 hours a day.

The outraged worker even claims colleagues have found themselves “reprimanded for going to the toilet”.

The desperate plea for help was prompted by weeks of astonishing Sunday Post revelations about the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Working with key union officials, we have laid bare a service on its knees, with staff claiming a lack of resources are costing patients’ lives.

More than 300 whistleblowers have contacted this paper on the back of the exhaustive investigation.

Jamie McNamee, a paramedic and Unite the Union official, said anyone who relies on the service will rightly be shocked by the content of the letter.

“This situation just cannot be allowed to continue any longer,” he added.

“Things must change now.”

The letter: “I’ve never worked in such a horrible place in my entire life”

AS a call-handler in an Ambulance Control Centre, I feel it necessary to share my views on what is becoming an increasingly awful place to work.

I’ve had numerous different jobs in my life so I know only too well that, in any workplace, not everyone is happy.

Staff will always grumble about their jobs and so on.

However, I can honestly say I’ve never worked in such a horrible place in my entire life.

At first, I seriously thought I had landed my dream job.

I thrived on having the opportunity to be the first port of call.

When someone was in dire straits, they would call on me and I’d help them, console them, tell them that the ambulance was on its way.

Yes, I do get to do all these things.

And no, I don’t look for praise.

Which is just as well at the West ACC as the management there leaves a lot to be desired.

Morale is at an all-time low.

Rarely do we see anyone laugh and, let’s face it, you need to be able to laugh in this job, otherwise you’d cry regularly.

Management couldn’t care less who you are.

These new name badges we have to wear don’t really matter, as no one knows me from Adam.

Us emergency call-handlers are the proverbial ‘bum on a seat’.

Dispatchers are a Band 4 in the NHS, a band higher than us measly people who just answer the phone.

They dispatch the ambulances only once the call-handler takes all the information, gives vital life-saving instructions and calms a hysterical person over the phone.

They too are treated badly, but with ever so slightly higher regard than us call-handlers probably due to their pay banding.

Band 3 is ridiculous for people who do our job. It is more of an administrative pay banding.

Myself, along with others including paramedics, technicians and some management, have voiced on several occasions that call-handlers deserve a higher pay banding.

Why?

We hear the screaming mother at 7am who has just found her baby girl dead in her cot.

We console the father who has just found his son hanging from the staircase after committing suicide.

We talk to the man who has nothing in his life and feels his only way out is to take an overdose.

We console the person who has witnessed a horrific road traffic accident.

Then we hear the car blow up in the background and hear the screams of the man who is trying to get his trapped son out of the car.

We talk to the people who have gone hill-walking, taken ill and have no idea where they are.

We use our skills to first console them, then work out where they could be so we can get resources to them.

We talk to the lonely, elderly lady suffering chest pain for hours, but who didn’t want to bother us until now.

We help people in their minute of need.

Yes, we get the people who have called for a minor cut but by and large we help the needy when they need it.

Getting reprimanded for going to the toilet has happened a few times on various shifts with workers leaving their desk and forgetting someone was on a break.

Management would not dare take calls to help out so instead they have a go at us call-takers.

We work in a control centre manned 24 hours-a-day yet we do not have a canteen facility.

The whole building houses over 200 people but there are just a couple of rarely-filled vending machines.

We are given just 45 minutes worth of breaks in a 12-hour shift the absolute minimum set by law.

This is absolutely terrible.

I know of retail store workers who have better breaks on a nine-hour shift.

We save lives and we are the first port of call for the whole of Scotland when someone needs emergency help.

So why are we getting an admin assistant’s wage?

Call-handlers care.

I for one think it’s time the difficulties we face are exposed.

We need more recognition.

We need better conditions.