“Whiskey Golf three seven, can you attend an RTC on the A 999, between Upper Dingle and Broad Trump. A head-on and road blocked.”
“Err, sorry. What was the location again?”
“A 999 between Upper Dingle and Broad Trump.”
“I thought that was what you said. The A 999 doesn’t go through either Upper Dingle or Broad Trump. That road is the B1234.”
“Well, that’s what the caller said.”
“ The location doesn’t exist. Can you phone them back?
“Sorry, the number taken is now switched off.”
Somehow, after driving around in ever decreasing circles, we manage to find the Collision Scene. I apologised to one of the drivers about the delay. He smiled and said, “I did wonder what the operator was on about. I told her I was on the A666, between Upper Digby and Banfield Torp. She said she couldn’t validate the address on her computer.”
“Ah”, I replied. “You were speaking to someone who is 60 miles away and has never been anywhere near here.”
“I might as well have called India.”
“Apparently, it’s called progress! You get a much better service from a large centralised control room, rather than a small local control room. Something to do with best practice.”
We’ve had our ‘super control’ for a few years now. It works ok if the desperate caller knows their postcode. If they don’t, forget it. With absolutely no local knowledge, if the computer says no, then the call taker goes for ‘best match’. I’ve lost count of the number of wild goose chases I’ve been on recently. Let’s use common sense and bring back local people serving local people!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Similiar probs in our Ambulance Controls.
Centralised controls lose a lot of local knowledge.
And if we try and tell the control staff where it is they invaribly get snotty!
Progress indeed!
I've experienced this from the other side, good job I knew the postcode.
We've had a similar problem with 2 towns with the same name. They are miles apart and in adjoining counties. Therefore messages being wrongly directed to another forces control room because the call taker doesn't know both towns exist.
Max - your suggestion about local people is a disgrace to your profession. Aren't you aware that all policies must clash with others to make them utterly unworkable? Your misdirected suggestion would only improve a shambolic system and go some way to provide a service to the community, and that simply won't do these days!
The Met and probably the rest of the country, is pissed on neighbourhood this and community that! until it comes to the people it chooses to do it.
Community officers in Hackney are from Bradford or Scotland, londoners go to Romford and Control room staff are housed in a vacuum somewhere off the A406 without ever meeting another human before they are recruited... that can only explain their utter inability to string a cohesive conversation with a caller in order not only to collate an incident, but carry out an effective fast time investigation. hence every call been lazily titled "I" call in order to prod the plod into action.
So now you've got a good idea, you need to dream up a counter policy that makes your first idea fail...
Get it now?
Nothing to do with best practice, something to do with fit for purpose.
Post a Comment