Local ambulance service reveals some of its more bizarre calls as part of day-long 'Tweetathon' (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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Local ambulance service reveals some of its more bizarre calls as part of day-long 'Tweetathon'
4:40pm Thursday 7th March 2013 in News
A MAN who set off a firework from his body and a paramedic locked in a room by students are just two of the bizarre incidents that have been shared as part of an ambulance service ‘tweetathon’.
The North West Ambulance Service is now half-way through its day-long social media marathon, which began this morning at 8am, to give locals an insight into the 999 service.
Staff have been on Twitter giving details of calls, posing scenarios and tweeting interviews with senior paramedics.
And a recent tweet reads: “999 call for male who set off fire cracker from anus, suffering from bleeding & burns ...Some incidents could be avoided.”
The social media day has been launched to showcase the service’s newest initiative, There’s More to your Ambulance Service, promoting the message that an emergency ambulance might not always be the most appropriate treatment.
Bob Williams, NWAS acting chief executive, said: “The aim of this campaign is not to discourage people from calling 999, it’s to raise awareness that when a person calls our emergency number, our main aim is to deliver the most appropriate treatment to the patient; and this may not necessarily always be an emergency ambulance.
“For example, if a patient is in a life-threatening condition they require fast treatment, immediately, and a quick delivery to A&E.
“But for another patient, whose condition is not life-threatening, a visit from a community based specialist may be the most appropriate treatment option, and the fastest route to recovery, for them.
“The Ambulance Service can locate the most appropriate resource, and direct the patient to it.”
Anybody who wants to tune in to the tweetathon should search for the service on www.twitter.com
The communications team, who are writing the tweets, are using ‘hashtags’ #calling999 and #whathappensnext.
The event will run until 6pm.
A spokesman for the service added: “We would like to reiterate that we do not want to discourage the public from calling 999, but want to raise awareness of all the routes to care available to the public, and to highlight that if you go to the right place first, you could theoretically, be on the route to recovery much more quickly.”
