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Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Documentary series taking a detailed look at ambulance services.

Life and death decisions on the frontline. From control rooms to the crews on the street, meet the people making sure every second counts.

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Ambulance: Series 3

Christopher Eccleston

Kirsty Cunningham

Simon Ford

Ben Rumney

Chris McLaughlin

Jo Hughes

Dragonfly Film and Television

Ambulance: Series 3: Episode 4

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Episode 4

Series 3

BBC One - Ambulance, Series 3, Episode 4

A day shift with paramedic crews brings a spike in mental health cases.

Documentary series. A day shift with paramedic crews from West Midlands Ambulance Service brings a spike in mental health cases.

West Midlands Ambulance Service has seen a 30 per cent rise in calls relating to mental health in the past three years. Paramedics have limited training in mental health, and there are no simple fixes. This episode sees some of the problems and frustrations they experience when trying to help a growing number of their patients who experience the trauma of mental health crises.

The shift starts with a series of category one emergency calls. Nina and Lauren respond to a caller whose mother has stopped breathing and is in cardiac arrest. The call handler in the control centre gives CPR advice over the phone while paramedics travel on blue lights to the scene. The target response time is seven minutes - if they arrive within five minutes, the patient's chance of survival increases by 20 per cent. After delivering the patient to hospital, Nina calls to check in on her own mother, who is recovering from heart surgery.

Nina and Lauren are dispatched when a wife reports that her husband is choking on his food. The choking has stopped by the time the crew arrive, but they learn there is a more serious illness behind the difficulty in eating - the patient, a retired teacher, has only recently been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and his health is declining fast.

The day takes a surprising turn when a call comes in from a member of the public who has spotted a suicidal message broadcast on Twitter. Holly and the team in Control must play detective to find an address for the Twitter account to make sure the patient gets the care she needs. Paramedic crew Justin and Helen join police in searching the area to find the patient before her threats to harm herself becomes a reality.

At the same time, Dave and Lauren are called to an alcoholic patient who has overdosed. The patient has previously had markers that say he has weapons at his address, but with no police available to assist the crew must decide whether to risk entering without back-up. They find a man who is desperate about the destruction his addiction has caused. Dave draws upon his own difficult past to reach out and connect with his patient.

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Documentary series providing a revealing insight into West Midlands Ambulance Service.

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