Tweets to reveal life on 'Mad Friday' frontline

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to pick up a 999 call?
Yorkshire Ambulance Service calls staff facing the region's emergencies.Yorkshire Ambulance Service calls staff facing the region's emergencies.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service calls staff facing the region's emergencies.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has begun a 24-hour 'tweetathon' from its emergency operations centre to give the public a glimpse of what it handles during the hectic Christmas season.

From 9am this morning, the service have been tweeting about the different 999 calls it receives through the course of 'Mad Friday', one of the festive period's busiest for ambulance staff.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

One tweet reads: "York EOC just dispatching to a possible cardiac arrest in Beverley #YAS247."

Another says: "PCR01 Defib Dave - 2nd job male 20's passed out. Allocated to on scene 4 minutes. #YAS247"

The tweetathon is also a chance to highlight that the service should be used for genuine emergencies only.

For example, one reads: "YAS would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Please remember to use your Ambulance Service wisely. #YAS24 #YASEOC."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The service is keen to stress that not everyone who dials 999 will be sent an ambulance - callers with less serious illnesses or injuries may be referred to NHS 111, given clinical advice over the phone or signposted to a more appropriate service.

The online event follows a successful tweetathon carried out by YAS last August.

Executive director of operations Dr David Macklin said: “Opening up our emergency operations centre through Twitter is a great way of giving everyone an insight into what happens when you call 999.

"Our staff deal with a huge variety of calls, as we showed in our last tweetathon where in the space of 24 hours we tweeted about everything from assisting the delivery of a baby over the phone to sending support to road traffic collisions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We will always respond to people with serious or life-threatening illnesses or injuries that need time-critical medical assistance.

"However, not all the 999 calls we receive are an emergency. We hope people will see how busy we are and consider using other healthcare providers in the community for less serious illnesses or injuries.”

Selected calls will be captured through the service’s Twitter page,www.twitter.com/YorksAmbulance, under the hashtag #YAS247. The tweetathon will finish at 9am on Saturday, December 19.