Emergency Operations Centre

Call Handling

Staff at our 999 Emergency Operations Centres handle all our emergency calls and deploy the most appropriate response.

999 calls are classified and handled according to their severity. An ambulance or rapid response vehicle (RRV) is dispatched as soon as the location of an incident is known ensuring vital time is not lost. Once this has been done, the telephone adviser asks the caller a carefully structured series of questions. The answers they give determine how the call is handled from then onwards. 

Managing Resources

The management of our resources, particularly our staff, is central to ensuring that there is full emergency cover across the county and in our 999 Emergency Operations Centres. The efficient organisation of rotas, meal breaks and vehicle stand-by locations make a major contribution to the speed and effectiveness of our response.

Other Access and Response Services

As well as handling emergency calls, we also handle calls diverted from GP surgeries when they are closed. We provide this service for some primary care trusts (PCTs) across Yorkshire and beyond.

Other out-of-hours cover includes handling calls for:

• some district nursing services, NHS and private dental services
• certain mobile clinicians attached to primary care centres
• patient transport for hospitals in Barnsley, Rotherham and York.