Hi there. I'm Amy Griffiths, and I'm one of the journalists in Banks Radio's Newsroom, and you're listening to Newscast. My name's Wendy Hume, and I work in the emergency drink control room. I answer, "No, no, nine calls," and dispatch police, fire, ambulance, we deal with all three services here. We also take all the calls, like patient transfers, discharges from hospital, or admissions from hospital, things like that, non-emagency ambulance calls. So, a lot that you're having to do for each individual call that comes in as well, that you're having to repeat that process for every call. Every call is different. Before you answer the phone, you've no idea what it's going to be. It could literally be anything, because we deal, I think, with the only sensor that actually deals with all three services. So, it could literally be anything that, the job is very varied, no day is the same. You never know what's going to happen. You could have, we call them Q days, rather than, we don't say the quiet word. So, it could be a Q day, or it could just be constant, or from the minute you get into the minute you leave, it's just so busy, so busy. So, yeah, there's an awful lot of activity on the island that I think, really, the public are protected. You know, we do so much here. My eyes have been opened. I've only been here 12 months, and my eyes have been open to the activities that go on on the island that you wouldn't ordinarily know about. It's very busy. So, you've been here 12 months. What made you want to come here, I suppose, in the first instance? All my jobs, really, from starting work, have primarily been telephone based. And I think, when you think of telephone jobs, 999, to me, as always, being the pinnacle, I wouldn't say that I've always aspired to it. I'll be honest with you. I didn't think I'd be able to do it. And I have struggled because there's so much that you've got to lay in. It's such a busy job. There's so much to lay in. But I mean, I absolutely love it, and everybody is so supportive. But yeah, definitely, I think 999 is the pinnacle of telephone based jobs. So, I'm really pleased that I'm here. In terms of the amount that you have to learn, it's not just the basic training. It's also the systems that you use. I mean, doing a tour of the control room, everyone's got three screens, all with different things on each screen that they're constantly having to flick between and look at. So, it's not a job for the faint heart, is it? No, not at all. Not at all. As I say, it's extremely busy and extremely varied. There's an awful lot that you have to think about and take into account. As I say, when you're going to answer that call, you've no idea what it's going to be. And there's no time to think. Because when people call us, they're calling us because they're in an emergency situation. It doesn't matter which service they require. They're ringing because they're in an emergency situation. So, your first, with me anyway, my first thought is to try and keep the call a calm. Because obviously, if it's a medical call, they're seeing their loved ones sick and they want help. So, there's panic from the call. So, your priority is to try and keep it calm so that you can get the information that you require, location, telephone number, extremely important. We have to get people to verify what their number is and what their address is. And the reason why we do that is to make sure that we're sending the ambulance crew or the police or the fire to the correct address. It's vitally important that we get those details. Sometimes people can be a bit, "Why are you asking me twice for those contact details?" But location and telephone number, if they get cut off, we can't ring them back if we haven't got the right telephone number. So, it is really important that we get those details. When I was chatting to some people on the floor, they were saying that there's a three-month training period. You're then sort of mentored on the floor, but really that's you answering calls from that point onwards. But that it takes around 12 months to really start to feel comfortable in the job. Are you starting to reach that point yet? Or do you still feel like you've got some room to go before you start to really feel comfortable and confident? Every day is a school day in here. I've been here on about 15 months now. I'm learning every day. I still don't feel fully confident at what I'm doing. We have calls audited. We have training all the time. I've never worked in a role. We're training is so intense. And you can totally understand why the trainer needs to be intense. You know, at the end of the day, we are secure in a situation until the police fire or ambulance arrive. So whatever the situation is on the call, that is our responsibility until they turn up. So the training is intense in here. Of course, it is. You have to know what you're doing. But equally, I don't feel as though I work on my own. I've got five team members who I work with constantly. And we do all work together. Someone will be doing something. Someone will be doing it all on the same job. We work all together as a team. It's not a solo role in here. Yeah, there's an awful lot of training, qualifications. We have to do qualifications as well. So there is an awful lot. It's intense, the training, but understandably so. So yeah, the whole team environment, the team effort is what gets you through the shift. And that's the thing as well is in terms of dealing with each call, you're having to do so many different things at once. You're having to try and send the right people to the right place, make sure they know exactly where they're going and what they're going to be dealing with when they get there. Having had to call 999 myself and had someone explain to me down the phone, I know exactly what is happening on the other end. So you're trying to then explain CPR, keep the person calm, help them do what they need to do whilst also still doing all of the background stuff that needs to be doing. So you're in particularly in those emergency situations, you're really, really having to do an awful lot and be on your game. Multi-tasking is key. But equally, as I said, so for example, if I was to answer a 999 call, I know, let's say it was a medical call, I know that my team, as soon as I've got the location and the telephone number verified by the caller, I can put the job onto the system and then everybody in my team has access to that call. So if you're ringing 999 as a caller, while I am busy getting the information that I need from you as the caller to what the circumstance is, my team are working behind me and they are making sure that there is an ambulance or there is police or whatever, depending on the situation, whatever needs to be there, they are all doing that behind me. So sometimes when you're speaking to a caller and they're just like, we need an ambulance quick, quick, because I think what callers think is that because I'm talking and I'm asking questions, that it's delaying the execution of the ambulance, but that's not the case at all. As I say, my team away can be behind me, they can see what I'm putting on the screen in regards to the call and what the emergency is and they make sure that that is all sent. So it is, as I say, it's very much a team effort, very much a team effort. And so how much does that then help you in this role, knowing that you have those people that have your back, that you can rely on in those situations when it is going to be a multi-person effort? I wouldn't be without any of the guys in here. Occasionally there'll be holidays or sickness or something, and you'll swap teams, you know, I've worked with quite a lot of teams in here now. I think maybe all of them I've worked with, everyone is amazing, they're so supportive, and I think it is because you know that you can't do the job on your own, all it's going to do is slow things down and time is off the essence, regardless of what the call is about. Everybody in here is amazing. Yeah, I love everybody. The job itself, do you really enjoy doing the job as well? Yeah, I do. For the next part. So I used to work at the taxis. I did that for a long time, off and on over the years, maybe 20 years off and on, and I loved it. And I always thought of myself as getting people home safe, you know, of a night, especially at the way I used to work a lot of weekends, so especially on the weekend, whereas now I'm just hopefully, hopefully I'm getting people safe, whatever their situation is. I'm a tiny little cog in the mechanics of getting that situation safe again. But in an emergency situation, you're saving someone's life, you're not just keeping them safe, you're saving their life. Yeah, that has. And there's also the other side where it's, you know, maybe not the best, the best outcome and having to deal with that as well is also, a lot. It is a multifaceted job. There's just so much, as I say, no day is the same. But I think it just highlights how important a job it is that you and your colleagues are doing here and how important it is to have something like International Control Room Week to recognize that role that you're all doing as well. And do you feel like that? Yeah, definitely. I think the more awareness that people have about what we do here is, is better, like everybody in here loves their job. We love what we do. I don't think you could do it if you didn't. Yeah, definitely one of those jobs. You've got to, your heart's got to be in it, definitely. Would you recommend it as a job? To the right people, yes, I would. It does take a certain kind of person. There's so many elements to it. And it wouldn't suit everybody. I mean, for a start, shifts, a lot of people don't like working shifts at all. I personally have worked shifts with a lot of the jobs that I've done. So, the shifts aren't a problem to me. But yeah, it has to be for the right person. But yeah, definitely I'd recommend. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radio newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx Radio podcasts at your favorite podcast provider. 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