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South West Ambulances Attend Almost 100 Wrong Addresses


Article by: rob brady
Date: 2 Jun 2014

pocketgpsworld.com
When an ambulance turns up at the wrong destination, it is often the satnav that is blamed. Figures just released appear to tell a different story.

Out of approximately half a million calls to The South Western Ambulance NHS Trust in 2013, only five errors where the ambulance was directed to the wrong location were attributed to satnavs.

Ambulances attended an incorrect address 94 times last year, but on 33 occasions the emergency service was given the incorrect details by the caller and 28 were due to call handlers.

A further 28 attendance errors were left unexplained.

Although five errors were blamed on satnavs, it does beg the question whether the figure was in fact higher when paper maps were relied on.

The trust, which is working to improve its systems, commented "Taking a 999 call can be very distressing and it can sometimes be very difficult to get the address for our call handlers. We're introducing refresher training. We are using some of the occasions where possibly an address has been inaccurate as a learning basis for our staff."

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Posted by sussamb on Mon Jun 02, 2014 12:26 pm Reply with quote

I wonder whether they work differently to others then? First thing that happens when you call our Control is that if you call from a landline the address automatically populates, so always best to use a landline when you can. I can't recall more than a couple of incidents in the last 5 years when I've been directed to the wrong address.

What is really more of an issue is that these days you don't often stay in your local area, so there's no local knowledge any more. That used to make a big difference in finding the locations that weren't correctly identified by satnav, or by the caller (particularly with RTCs) or enabled us to get there more quickly as we knew the shortcuts in 'our' area.

Where there's a will ... there's a way.

  
Posted by aj2052 on Mon Jun 02, 2014 11:12 pm Reply with quote

sussamb said:

Quote:
What is really more of an issue is that these days you don't often stay in your local area, so there's no local knowledge any more. That used to make a big difference in finding the locations that weren't correctly identified by satnav, or by the caller (particularly with RTCs) or enabled us to get there more quickly as we knew the shortcuts in 'our' area.

This has been a problem in Cornwall for many years ever since they transferred control from locally to Exeter I think about 15 yrs ago, Exeter was over 100 miles from where I lived and it was a regular issue, I am surprised its not been resolved but then the Air ambulance does a magnificent service in Cornwall and perhaps covers the failings of the road ambulance service.

Moto G5s Plus, Sygic 17.4.8

  
Posted by DennisN on Tue Jun 03, 2014 6:24 am Reply with quote

Quote:
Ambulances attended an incorrect address 94 times last year

Well, that's pretty good going out of half a million calls = correct addresses in 99.99982% (hastily add that I haven't checked that maths with Anita!). Isn't that better than "Kills 99% of all known germs"?

I consider my success rate quite brilliant, but I've had difficulty getting "there" quite a few times and with five in half a million, their satnavs are better than mine - in my half a million miles I've had more like 6 wrong directions. (Probably since TomTom started concentrating on Twitter and FaceBook Evil or Very Mad ).

Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

  
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