Inside the control centre of National Ambulance

National Ambulance, which launched its Northern Emirates service on February 24, allowed The National access to the operations of its control-room headquarters to provide a real-time account on the front lines of emergency care.

Mohammed Abdoh, one of National Ambulance’s medical dispatchers, takes an emergency call in the control room in Etihad Towers in the capital. Christopher Pike / The National

ABU DHABI // It is 12.22pm. Dispatcher Omar Al Matar is halfway though a 12-hour shift at the National Ambulance emergency operations centre when a call is patched through.

He is alerted to an assault that has taken place in Sharjah. The injured victim needs emergency assistance.

As one of eight dispatchers on shift at the National Ambulance control room, it is Mr Al Matar’s job to respond to emergencies across the Northern Emirates.

He locates a nearby ambulance and quickly calls the emergency-vehicle personnel to dispatch it to the scene. “The scene is not confirmed to be safe. Do not proceed to the scene until we tell you to,” he says. “Stand by.”

It is an ongoing crime scene, he says. “We have to wait for the police. Our priority is the safety of our paramedics,” he says.

The role of the control-room team, based in Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Tower, is to take emergency calls and gain vital information so that help can be sent as soon as possible. They are the first link in the emergency response chain.

Mr Al Matar, 23, has had a busy morning. Ten ambulances are attending call-outs in the Ajman and Sharjah area alone. They include a domestic violence case, a hypertension case and a traffic accident.

Another case involves a pregnant woman who had suffered a cardiac arrest. This is one of the most serious types of emergency – a “red” case. Less critical calls are classed as “yellow”.

The team responds to about 100 calls a day. “When you answer the phone, you have to be ready for anything,” Mr Al Matar says.

This includes a life-or-death emergency, such as a road-traffic accident, which is the most common, or a stroke or heart attack.

The biggest stress is dealing with the geographical challenge that the Northern Emirates pose.

“Not all people are familiar with the areas. Sometimes they don’t know where they are,” he says.

“We have to ask them ‘What do you see around you?’. Sometimes we work like detectives to know the location.”

Marsha Feighan, the team leader, agrees. “The guys are asking for shops, landmarks, streets.”

Mr Al Matar says the worst part of the job is not getting closure.

“You develop a connection with a patient and you get worried about them, but you never know what happens to this patient afterwards,” he says. “Were they OK? You never know. You are too busy handling other calls.”

The first two critical questions to ask a caller are “are they conscious?” and “are they breathing irregularly?” says Mr Al Matar. If not, the patient could be in cardiac arrest.

“These are the No 1 priority – you cannot wait. Each one-minute delay drops the survival rate by 10 per cent.”

There are several jobs in an ambulance control room. It is one person’s job to take calls from the police or the public.

Another person has the job of dispatching one of the 20 ambulances that operate out of eight key locations and 22 sub-locations in the Northern Emirates.

An on-duty paramedic is always in the control room to answer any medical queries, and a team leader oversees operations, making sure that things run smoothly.

“The best part of the job is when there is a storm going on and you got it,” says Mr Al Matar. “You are controlling the situation well and there is a satisfaction that there is all this mess and you are handling it. And it all resulted in people being saved.”

Call handler Mohammed Abdoh, 23, says he had a career highlight a week ago when he successfully gave cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructions over the phone until the ambulance arrived.

“It is about saving lives,” he says. “And it is a close team. We are like family.”

Eventually, the control room gets more information about the incident in Sharjah. The pregnant woman and her unborn child have died at hospital.

This is one of the worst parts of the job, says Graham Stewart, National Ambulance’s chief operations officer.

“Because we are here to save lives,” he says.