Don’t call 999

[CaptainRAVE]

Met Police getting record emergency calls hours after UK-wide problem with 999 service

Police, fire and ambulance services had earlier urged people to call 101 - but BT later said its back-up system had solved the issue.

news.sky.com

So who am I meant to call? Batman? What a shambles and on such a hot day too.

Have any of you actually tried 101 in an emergency. Last time I needed them I was in a 20 minute queue.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

 

[chaparral]

Full list of services affected as fire, police and ambulance ask public not to dial 999

Forces including the Metropolitan Police, South Wales Police and Greater Manchester Police have urged people to call 101 in an emergency, while many fire and rescue and ambulance services have also shared the alert.

news.sky.com

​

Which police forces have shared the alert?

• Metropolitan Police
• South Wales Police
• Greater Manchester Police
• West Midlands Police
• West Yorkshire Police
• Kent Police
• Derbyshire Police
• Cumbria Police
• Bedfordshire Police
• Essex Police
• Northamptonshire Police
• Gwent Police
• Devon and Cornwall Police
• Avon and Somerset Police
• Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI)

Which fire and rescue services have shared the alert?


• South Wales Fire and Rescue
• North Wales Fire and Rescue
• West Midlands Fire and Rescue
• Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue
• Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue
• Scottish Fire and Rescue
• Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue
• South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

Which ambulance services have shared the alert?

• London Ambulance Service
• North West Ambulance Service
• West Midlands Ambulance Service
• East England Ambulance Service

 

[delta0]

Seems like the 999 service has gone down for some reason. Hopefully not for long.

 

[UTmaniac]

Ghostbusters!

 

[Throrik]

Pour one out to the poor engineers having to deal with this.

 

[delta0]

Do they know if it’s a hardware issue or software or worse hacking?

 

[glenimp617]

Lincolnshire police haven't shared the alert yet. To be fair, it's only 10:30am so I doubt anyone's out of bed yet.

 

[robfosters]

Apparently the back up is working and you can ring 999 again

 

[jpaul]

Don't leave me hanging on the telephone ? is it in her set

 

[GGizmo]

It would be interesting to know what the fault was.

 

[Derek W]

Last week I had a fun visit from the Police to my workplace because apparently my phone made a dropped call to the Police with no one in the house. Work that one out!

 

[mrk]

The answer is obvious:

 

[Werewolf]

It would be interesting to know what the fault was.

I suspect given the SLA's that are likely in place and the seriousness of losing 999 at all there will be some sort of enquiry or at the very least some pointed questions asked in parliament (and probably brushed off with a counter "question" where a tory mp congratulates* Rishi for the police response time in their area and how many days of the year the 999 service doesn't go down for half the country), and the likes of The Register will likely follow it.

AFAIK 999 is basically never meant to go down, there is meant to be a seamless/exceptionally fast fallover to the backup system or even complete reroute to other 999 call centres if anything major goes wrong, my guess is that the company with the nice juicy contract to ensure that it stays up will have quietly cut staffing or not maintained some bit of "non essential" hardware (as I believe has happened a couple of times in the past for one emergency call centre or another). Yes i'm cynical.



*My first choice of words was something more crude and involved the name of a junior job in a certain industry.

 

[Mysterae_]

The solution is easy - just call someone a ***** **** ************** on twitter and the police will soon be at your door. If you need an ambulance then get yourself on a dingy and go to the seashore.... Don't know what you'd do if you need the fire service - the smoke signals of a burning economy aren't getting the attention from our absent landlord of a government.

 

[cheesefest]

Leicestershire was also down. As 2 wombles found a burnt out car in the overgrowth. Rang 101 and said there's a problem with 999.

 

[Sankari]

Another Brexit success story!

#anotherbrexitsuccessstory

 

[uber soldat]

Last week I had a fun visit from the Police to my workplace because apparently my phone made a dropped call to the Police with no one in the house. Work that one out!

That girl you keep in the cellar has finally escaped?

 

[Rroff]

Have any of you actually tried 101 in an emergency. Last time I needed them I was in a 20 minute queue.

I've never waited more than 2-3 minutes, but one of my colleagues was 17 in the queue when she had to call 101 at work recently. Sadly that'll probably be the least of the delay.

 

[thenewoc]

101 is total joke, wouldn't waste my time on that again.

When I caught COVID and was up all night coughing until I was about to pass out, I thought it would be prudent to use 101. Took about 10 hours and about 3 return calls as I got passed from pillar to post before some other GP booked a call with my GP, genius. Such a waste of time and resources that could be better spent. Being told if you get any worse and think you're having a heart attack to dial 999 is just great. Then waiting for an ambulance once you're actually having a heart attack seems like Russian roulette.