In message
, at
11:57:26 on Wed, 13 Oct 2010, martin
remarked:
I work in a very large building. During our first aid training, we
were told that in a emergency, someone should contact security, who
would alert the emergency services. Our trainer cited an example where
an employee had a heart attack, a colleague called 999, and when the
ambulance turned up at the main gate, the security people didn't even
know it had been called, much less where the paramedics needed to go.
Because medical help didn't reach them in time, the heart attack
victim died.

That's one of the problems with big buildings (and big sites).

Obviously you should *also* call the gatehouse or reception.

There's another legacy from the 60's and 70's which is that many large
sites would have private internal phone systems and break the calls out
in a large metropolis which minimised their phone bill. Like London.
That makes it difficult to know where someone is calling from, unless
they are grilled about it.

If we believe the thread here a month ago about railway lands and
postcodes, they won't dispatch to anywhere unless they have a reasonably
good idea of "where".

Whether the LU control rooms functioned as they should have done on
7/7 is probably a matter for the inquest, but I can certainly see the
reason why the call goes to them and not from an individual employee.

Passengers can generally find the platforms at a railway station, it's
not clear why emergency services staff can't. Especially if there are
hundreds of wounded people milling around.
--
Roland Perry