I need to touch on the other side of this subject again.
The need to be fighting on the phone to get a woman to send help not continue the questions while some one is bleeding to death can be traced back to several things.
False alarms, the police get hundreds giggling kids,or kids in adult body's do it for fun.
The cry wolf mob are criminals, police basically know putting the fools in court is a waste of time.
We should deal harshly with every one of them, never let them walk away from such acts.
You can not over look some call center people, some women more often than not, grow in self importance and have no intention of understanding you are up to your elbows in blood and fear death and dieing,we must know the nearest cross road Sir!
On a bush road every cop every Ambo knows very well.
I hope no one reading this,ever has to call so very many times as I have,climb the barbed wires fences force your way around the ego,and tell the injured person help is on the way while hoping it is.
Remember too, you MUST take control talk clearly tell what you need and the place you are in,leave the panic till after the patent is on the way to hospital.

I've had to call 000 in Qld a number of times.

All for strangers. Once where I would have prefered to have a different number to call, the situation was not yet an emergency but looked like it was heading that way very rapidly.

In each case I've been very happy with the response. The operators were polite but effective.

The police have now advertised a general call number for call's which don't rate 000 which I've got stored in my mobile phone. That's a step forward. Policelink 131444 http://www.police.qld.gov.au/programs/policelink/ There was a limited amount of TV and radio advertising some time back.

I do agree that as an outsider from the media reports I've heard sometimes they just seem to get it wrong but my impression is that mostly they do a great job.

R0bert

It's the crank call makers, the nuisance cry-wolf etc. who would be in my firing line for fast track on extra time into non-military Service. They would benefit as much as those who didn't get inconvenienced because the other lot is otherwise occupied. It would be the first step to the solution. How many such response operators are out there but luckily, haven't caused the headline like the flood victim one. Yes, they are inundated with calls but let's ask ourselves why are they inundated with calls ? Because people have become so incredibly useless that they clog up the emergency help lines simply because they can't get a peg off the clothes line.
I mean, has anyone ever made public some of those calls ? It's the same with the police. Try & get them to help you with an intruder, fat chance. Call them about someone walking home drunk & they're onto it. I know quite a few police officers who are just about in tears because their incompetent superiors won't let them deal with given situations. Why do we have such incompetent superiors ? Because their superiors haven't had any exposure to responsible thinking so therefore neither to those beneath them have either. Had they all participated in a national service they would have learnt to think a little more responsibly. I say, all those against a national service register yourself so that when you need help you'll have to cope with the situation you have contributed to in creating rather than get the assistance borne of responsible thinking by way of national service.

Bellybabe:”It is not illegal to monitor the police in NSW about 100.000 radio scanners have been sold in this country.”

But it isn’t possible with the encrypted (is that the right word) channels – digital stuff everywhere in NSW with the police I thought? But I heard you just listen in to the truckies cause they know everything.

No Jewerly not all over the state not all over Australia.
First a warning, some true idiots own scanners, it is a crime to interfere with an officer in doing his duty.
Idiots do, many trucks have scanners,some UHF radios have them built in.
In an event that a responsible operator hears , if unknown are listening she/he should turn it off or down.
And yes most are ok.
But be fair, was that officers response not dreadful.
As that young man near death begged for help [he died] was a better person likely to have saved him?
Have you actually been on that dreadful mountain at a multiple fatal, alone, and tried to work both the phone and injured and had a semi come out of the dark smash in to it all.
Then has a rude operator REFUSE TO BELIEVE a second event had taken place and hang up?
We are better than that,some would and do give free time to be there to help others too used to the foolish crank calls bet on real ones being crank, the chips are human life.

Another excellent issue/thread Belly to be addressed.

Approximately 15 years ago a man presented himself stabbed in the head (rural location although not remote/remote).

I contacted paramedics (these days I would choose the firies as their response time is quicker and more efficient) than paramedics more resources, less fire call outs as opposed to paramedics constantly attending accidents and call outs.

The crux of this story is that it took 15 minutes to explain the incident to the operator (glad that I had stabilised him prior to making the call). Although he wandered off down the dirt road disoriented which was placing him in danger of coming across the thugs again who had thrown him out the door on the highway in the first place.

I have also learned over past years when at home, to use local contact phone numbers for the Firies as opposed to OOO.

I have found Firies to be the best in handling accidents, communicating effectively, delivering first aid, directing the traffic to avoid second collisions from occurring, while waiting for paramedics