Grid Reference and 999 Concerns
Relevant to: Walk Leaders and Members
Posted: 27 May 2011
For Information: Update following April’s request for members to contact us if they had experienced a delay in an ambulance attending the scene of an incident due to control room staff being unable to interpret grid reference locations.
We’ve had a success in our campaign to ensure all Ambulance Trusts are able to pinpoint distressed walkers who phone 999 and give their location as a grid reference. South Western Ambulance Trust has agreed to update their computer software to accept grid reference locations alongside Sat Nav and GPS locations.
The Ramblers is campaigning to persuade all Ambulance Trusts to ensure they can take grid reference locations, after learning of cases where the dispatch of ambulances was delayed by a lack of understanding of gird references by control room staff.
This is an important milestone in this campaign, but we’ve got much further to go. Each Trust works independently, so we need to persuade them all to have adequate software. Thanks to Ramblers members who raised this issue with us and to the staff helping with this campaign.
We are continuing to collect reports of incidents, if you or your Group have experienced similar problems we would like to hear from. Please contact Karen Inkster, Led Walks Officer on 020 7339 8519 or karen.inkster@ramblers.org.uk.
