Ambulance

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Documentaries

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.

Series 10

Christopher Eccleston

Simon Ford

Peter Wallis-Tayler

James Robinson

Becky Houlihan

Vicky Munro

Dragonfly Film and Television

Ambulance: Series 10: Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 4

BBC One - Ambulance, Series 10, Episode 4

Crews respond to multiple 999 calls for patients struggling with their mental health.

The North East Ambulance Service responds to multiple 999 calls for patients at breaking point and struggling with their mental health.

A busy night shift for the North East Ambulance Service begins with an emergency call for a woman in labour. On hand to guide the patient through the birth is call handler, Jen who helps to safely deliver a little baby girl.   
 
Responding to a category two call in Stockton are crewmates Hannah and Becky. They’re attending a 78-year-old female patient who has fallen down the stairs and suffered a seizure. The crew help to get the patient up off the floor while consoling her daughter who is tremendously worried about her mum. At hospital, the crew meet the family in the relative’s room and offer some kind words of reassurance.  
 
In control, an urgent call is received for a 12-year-old female patient who has taken an overdose, crewmates Ollie and James are immediately dispatched. The patient admits she’s been struggling at school which is having an impact on her mental health. The crew are concerned it isn’t safe to leave the patient at home and decide to take her to the nearest hospital, where she will receive help from the crisis team. Before parting ways, James urges the patient to continue asking for help. The job leads James to contemplate the increase in young people accessing mental health services; ‘It is a challenge and sometimes it’s frustrating, but they deserve the ambulance as much as some of the higher case emergencies… it’s probably the worst day of their life for them and that’s where we come in and say, 'Actually, we can help you'’.
 
An ongoing emergency call for a patient in cardiac arrest takes priority for crewmates, Laura and Natalie. As they race across to the patient’s address, in control suspicions are raised that the call may be a hoax. Laura and Natalie arrive on scene to find the property in darkness, with no apparent signs of an emergency. Following further questioning, the call handler quickly determines that the call is in fact a hoax and the caller is sadly suffering with mental health problems.  
 
The service begins to feel the pressure of a busy night shift with 45 calls waiting to be answered. Crewmates Kristian and Francis are dispatched to an intoxicated male patient who put his head through a hotel window following an argument. In addition to the patient’s head injury, the crew feel he would benefit from speaking with the crisis team as he admits struggling with his mental health. Seeing the patient at breaking point leads Kristian to reflect, ‘People don’t always realise that they’re in that spiral of going downwards until it’s too late. By the time we get to them, they’ve gone from crying out to being in a full-on crisis. Sometimes, just a voice can maybe help to sway someone from going down that path’.  
 
Crewmates Ollie and James have just cleared from their third job of the night when they’re dispatched to an 89-year-old male vomiting and experiencing weakness. Fetching the patient some water, Ollie discovers an airgun. Intrigued, he brings it up with the patient who recalls his past life in the Royal Marine Commandos Shooting Squad.  
 
It’s the start of the Thursday night shift and crews across the North East are back on duty. In control, call handler Jen is part of the team answering one new call every 50 seconds. From a category one call for a patient suffering a possible heart attack, to speaking with a patient who’s had too many energy drinks, Jen is experiencing a varied start to the shift. Regardless of the type of call, Jen’s role remains the same, ‘People are anxious and don’t know where to turn. I understand that now. We are a faceless voice but while I’m on that phone, I am a voice, I am there, and I am present - I’m listening.’  
 
In Hartlepool, Kristian and Jess are dispatched to a female patient with blood cancer who is suffering from leg pain. On the way to hospital the patient tells Jess about her former career running a bakery.  
 
Over halfway through the night shift and a call is received from the crisis team raising concerns for a patient who is feeling suicidal and taken an overdose. Ollie and James are dispatched to the patient on the wrong side of the railings near the seafront. Ollie takes time to speak with the patient and reassure that he and James are there to help. In control, the job feels all too close to home for dispatcher Hollie who reflects on her personal experience of losing a close friend to suicide.  
 
This episode highlights the rising demand for mental health care across the North East, as ambulance crews respond to multiple emergency calls for patients battling with their mental health while attempting to navigate overstretched services and feeling they have nowhere left to turn for help.

Ambulance: Series 10

BBC One

Documentary series following the North East Ambulance Service.

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