The Learning the Lessons Committee is a multi-agency committee established to disseminate and promote learning across the police service. Its members are: ACPO, APA, Home Office, IPCC, HMIC and the NPIA. The Committee produces bulletins with articles containing lessons from investigations.

Working with the ambulance service

Shortly after midnight, a 999 caller reported a man had collapsed in front of her house; he appeared to have been drinking. An ambulance was sent. Minutes later the same caller rang to say the man had disappeared and the ambulance was recalled. In fact the man was propped up against the wall, out of her line of sight.

A couple of hours later, another 999 caller requested help for an unconscious man on the corner of the same street. The ambulance service (in breach of their procedures) simply passed the details to the police. The police initially assessed the request as a priority (to be dealt with within 60 minutes), but then, regraded the call to a standard response, to be dealt with during that shift.

However, the ambulance service was left with the impression that the police were dealing with the request. Neither ambulance nor police went to the scene.

After an hour and a half, the police contacted the ambulance service to request an update. The ambulance service said they had passed the call to the police and could not attend. The police replied that the call was low priority and they could not resource it at that time. Again, neither ambulance nor police took action.

Two and a half hours later, a taxi driver called the ambulance service to report an unconscious man at the same location.

The caller was told that the police and ambulance service knew of this and had already attended.

Shortly afterwards police officers were finally sent to the scene in response to the earlier call. They discovered a man lying unconscious on the pavement with a small head wound.

They called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital.

The man, an alcoholic of 60, had fractured his skull as a result of a fall and was suffering from hypothermia.

Despite surgery he died a couple of days later. Lying on the street for nearly seven hours had reduced his chance of surviving.

Key questions – for policy makers/managers:

• Do you have a formal structure for meetings with the ambulance service?

• Do you offer call handlers joint training with the ambulance service?

• Do you have a policy on how requests from the ambulance service should be dealt with, or how requests for assistance should be made?

Click on the link below for the full learning report