With the National Ambulance:
- National Ambulance project provides better services to Northern Emirates
- National Ambulance call handlers trained for stressful situations
- Northern Emirates residents praise ambulance crew for saving lives
- Paramedics in action in the Northern Emirates - in pictures
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ABU DHABI // Every time call handler Rawan Telfah answers a 999 call it could mean a life-or-death situation.
Often, therefore, at the end of a typical 12-hour shift at the National Ambulance’s control-room, she is often exhausted and proud at having dealt with the fallout from road traffic accidents, strokes or any one of a number of different medical emergencies she and her colleagues are trained for.
“When people call us — this is often one of their worst, darkest days,” said the 24-year-old.
It can mean call handlers are often faced with stressful situations.
“It is mainly any call with a child involved,” she said. “These are the most stressful times.”
A case she will never forget is the death of a four-year-old boy.
“I remember the parents who rang up. Their son’s neck had got stuck between two large gates outside their villa. He died. I will never forget that.
“Sometimes when you get a job like this you have to take a step back and just let your partner continue your position while you take a breather.”
Ms Telfah has spent a year in her job at the National Ambulance communications centre, based in Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Towers.
Together, the team — all bilingual in English and Arabic — handle the some 150 emergency calls typically seen over a 24-hour period.
It is one person’s job to take calls from the police or the public and another’s to dispatch the ambulances that operate out of 24 location points based in the Northern Emirates.
Their job is to glean vital information so that an emergency medical technician response can be sent as quickly as possible. Every one in the control room is trained in both specialities.
The biggest challenge facing the team is calming down an often panicked caller.
“We have to talk to them and calm them down to get their location as quickly as possible,” she said. “Then the most important thing we need to know if the patient is conscious or not and if he is breathing normally.”
This helps prioritise the call, she said.
While the dispatched ambulance is en-route, the call-handlers then help build up a medical profile of the patient and also issue instructions to the caller — for example first aid advice or how to perform CPR to someone who has suffered a heart attack.
The vast expanse of the Northern Emirates and the absence of a proper addressing system can also make it difficult for call handlers and dispatchers to pinpoint the location of a panicked caller, she said.
Often asking a caller a nearby landmark is the best way, she said.
“You get past it with experience,” she said. “But it is a learning curve.”
A mapping system in the control room with landmarks and iconic buildings flagged aids the workers, she said.
While many calls are stressful, many will have a happy ending, she said.
“For example, my colleague helped someone deliver a baby. Another colleague was giving CPR instructions and the victim got his pulse back. It is those kind of memories that will stay with us.
“Often calls will make you smile. We recently had a call from someone who had his wife in the car with him, saying ‘my wife just delivered a baby’.
“It is this experience of life and death. We do have some sad moments but we do have some great moments that will never be forgotten.”
The team also often get phone calls of a more bizarre nature, she said.
“We do get funny ones. Someone requested an ambulance because he feels he has cold feet — not because he is getting married,” she said with a laugh.
“Just that his feet felt cold. Another caller was complaining of toothache.”
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About this story:
February last year, Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior announced the National Ambulance project. Since then the Northern Emirates has seen massive improvements in services in spite of dense traffic and the lack of a proper addressing system.
Call handlers are the first point of contact: their jobs are to glean vital information so that an emergency medical technician response can be sent as quickly as possible. They are also trained to remain calm in stressful situations and to keep callers from panicking.
The expanded network has meant that response times for the majority of incidents now fall under the eight-minute-mark — meaning the National Ambulance are performing in line with international standards.
With the National Ambulance:
- National Ambulance project provides better services to Northern Emirates
- National Ambulance call handlers trained for stressful situations
- Northern Emirates residents praise ambulance crew for saving lives
- Paramedics in action in the Northern Emirates - in pictures
jbell@thenational.ae
