Accident & Emergency

As a regional ambulance service we operate from 4 Control Centres. A reconfiguration of services is currently taking place which will see NIAS operating from 2 Control Centres which will be located in the Eastern & Western Divisional areas. All 999 calls will be received at the Regional Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre (sited at Ambulance HQ) and all Non-Urgent calls will be received at Altnagelvin Control Centre (Londonderry). In excess of 106,000 999 emergency calls are received at Regional Control on a yearly basis and around 80 staff are employed, working on a shift basis to provide cover 24/7.

All 999 calls are categorised according to the seriousness of the patient's illness or injury. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) uses the Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System (AMPDS) as a means of clinical prioritisation for 999 calls. This system allows our Control staff to provide those making a 999 call with pre-arrival medical advice in advance of the ambulance arriving with them. It also permits us to prioritise calls to ensure those in need receive the appropriate response.

In line with other UK ambulance services, emergency medical dispatchers ask a series of carefully structured questions so that 999 calls can be put into one of three categories:

Red - immediately life-threatening;
Amber - serious but not immediately life-threatening;
Green - neither immediately life-threatening or serious.

These codes correspond with the Department of Health's classifications of Category A, B and C.

The new system of priority dispatch means that if there is a particularly high level of demand in one area and an ambulance is needed at two calls, the nearest available ambulance can be sent or if necessary diverted to the patient in the most serious condition. It also means that additional resources, such as a Rapid Response Vehicle, can be sent to the most clinically urgent calls.

999 calls are responded to by the nearest available ambulance.