Contents
We call an ambulance in the event of a threat to life or health. Dial an emergency number when dangerous symptoms such as an attack of breathlessness, sudden and severe abdominal pain or loss of consciousness occur. Calling an ambulance shouldn’t be a problem for you. All you have to do is call 999 or 112 from a mobile phone.
- Calling in a situation when the patient’s life is not at all threatened is a real scourge
- This is a serious problem, because when an ambulance goes to a person in good condition, a patient in a much more serious condition may die somewhere else.
- We advise in which situations you should not call an ambulance
- More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.
When can an ambulance be called?
The ambulance service can be called only in situations of a direct threat to life or in the so-called urgent conditions, i.e. those that may result in significant damage to health. You can also call an ambulance to a patient with dangerous symptoms, such as:
- loss of consciousness,
- seizures
- disturbances of consciousness,
- sudden sharp pain in the chest
- severe shortness of breath,
- Heart arythmia,
- persistent vomiting, especially with blood,
- severe haemorrhage from the gastrointestinal tract or genital tract,
- sudden, severe abdominal pain.
You can call an ambulance and you won’t pay for it when the uninsured person is in a life-threatening condition.
Also read: First aid – how to give it?
What questions does an ambulance dispatcher ask?
Even if the dispatcher’s questions seem trivial and meaningless to you, try to answer them as best you can. It is the dispatcher who decides whether to send an ambulance. Therefore, he must know a lot about the event that has occurred.
When calling, be prepared that the ambulance dispatcher will ask you a few / a dozen questions. Try to stay calm. Then you can more easily give specific answers. Ambulance dispatcher he will ask you mainly about your data and description of the situation, which will help him make a decision and transfer information to the ambulance crew. The main questions of the dispatcher are:
- Your first and last name.
- Your phone number.
- A brief description of the situation as precise as possible. Tell me what exactly happened, how many people need help. Be sure to also disclose the symptoms, injuries and age of those affected.
- The exact address and the shortest route. Every minute is extremely valuable.
- A place to wait for an ambulance. If possible, include a landmark (e.g. school, church, bus stop, post office, etc.).
What happens when an ambulance arrives?
Usually the patient will be taken to the nearest hospital. At its own request, it can be transported to another medical facility. Provided that the hospital has free places and is located in area served by a specific ambulance.
Importantly, the patient can only be accompanied by a person caring for a sick child or a person suffering from a mental illness. We will not pay for an ambulance call if we are covered by health insurance. However, we must take into account the costs if we do not have insurance. Transport of the patient to hospital without an order is also charged.
When not to call an ambulance?
Remember to make a rational decision to call an ambulance. Don’t call me when:
- you want to make an appointment for a control visit due to previously started treatment,
- you need a prescription for regular medications due to a chronic disease,
- you want to arrange a routine medical certificate,
- you need a referral to a specialist
- you want to undergo additional tests or specialist consultations recommended by your family doctor.
Check also: Dog ambulance? This is not a joke. Poles frequently lie to dispatchers
We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to self-compassion – a trend that has developed very strongly in the United States, but is still in its infancy in Poland. What is it and how does it affect our daily functioning? You will hear about this and many other issues related to self-compassion in the latest episode of our podcast.