Perils of the postcode lottery when calling an ambulance

IT was interesting reading of John Bolton’s experiences with the ambulance service and his need to give operators a postcode when initial contact was made requesting assistance (Yorkshire Post, May 20).

However, the incident referred to was in the urban Mirfield area. This problem becomes more acute in sparsely or unpopulated rural areas, and is exacerbated by the use of mobile telephones.

Although no longer a member (but a founder member) of one of the moorland rescue teams, I recall back in the “good old days” if a rescue team wanted the services of a local authority/health service ambulance we contacted the local ambulance control room.

We knew where this control room was; we also knew that operators there knew the area we were talking about.

I am the organiser of a major fell-running event and now find that the situation has become somewhat complex. Last July, we had a need of an ambulance on the eastern side of Fylingdales Moor, obviously an area for Scarborough Search and Rescue Team.

It is no longer possible to speak to the local control room to discuss a situation and decide to use the civilian rescue team when it is clearly impractical to use an NHS ambulance. The only contact had to be made using the 999 service. It now becomes interesting and somewhat frustrating.

On being asked the postcode my operator advised them that the moor around Burn Howe does not have a post code. On being asked the road name they were advised likewise, I understand we were then asked the name of the closest pub.

We gave a grid reference and the first operator had no idea what we were talking about – fortunately a second one was a little more helpful, but still had no idea of where we were talking about.

Eventually and for no logical reason the air ambulance was utilised at great expense, and totally unnecessarily.

On pursuing this ridiculous situation with the NHS ambulance service, I was advised that the “Yorkshire” control room that handles this area had no record of the call, and it appears that as the call was made by mobile telephone it was routed to a control room somewhere in the North East and that explained the lack of local knowledge.

Apparently different mobile networks route 999 calls to differing control rooms. This of course means that you have a 50-50 chance (at best) of getting an operator that has the slightest idea of the area you are talking about.

A postcode may be very beneficial for an address in a city or village, but on a bit of open moor five miles from the nearest surfaced road and three miles or so from the nearest habitation it is totally useless; almost as useless as 999 operators that can’t understand a six-figure grid reference that is accurate to within 100 metres.