Who is on call/on standby?

West · 29 Jan 2011 at 21:36

When i'm off work I keep my Airwave radio on in case they do a shout for a 999 in my area.. if i'm free i'll normally go, but i'm normally booked on anyway (So I get sent anyway lol) but as I don't have my MINI (Being fixed at a garage atm) i'm not booked on as i'm technically not insured to go on a 999 call using a hire car.. (Wouldn't stop me responding to a Cardiac Arrest though)

Rich1988 · 29 Jan 2011 at 21:40

monday - friday yes weekends no

Meridian · 29 Jan 2011 at 22:23

I'll be on-call for most of next week, including the weekend. Luckily you nice tax-payers fund it...

M

Ev0 · 29 Jan 2011 at 22:27

On call 1 in 3 as well, again funded by the tax payer

Very rarely ever get a call though, it's supposed to only be for critical systems but they forward the help desk phones on as well. But where I work people very rarely call up anyway, can't remember last time I had a call out of hours so it's easy money.

I don't drink so there's no problems there, and would very rarely ever need an instant response to an issue as the business just doesn't work like that if that makes sense. It's not commercial so no financial loss incurred, as long as most things are working monday to Friday 9 till 5 they are happy

ingouk · 29 Jan 2011 at 22:31

i am on call. since about july 2009. 24/7. and on my second bottle of red wine tonight.

Rich1988 · 29 Jan 2011 at 22:32

ingouk said:
i am on call. since about july 2009. 24/7. and on my second bottle of red wine tonight.

alcholic

ingouk · 29 Jan 2011 at 22:35

you mean alcoholic right? ;-)

Fiocca · 29 Jan 2011 at 22:47

Yep, from 5 till 8 in the morning and my only day off is tommorow so i cant do jack. Only get 15 quid for it before call outs so it blimming sucks :/

Morba · 29 Jan 2011 at 22:53

West said:
When i'm off work I keep my Airwave radio on in case they do a shout for a 999 in my area.. if i'm free i'll normally go, but i'm normally booked on anyway (So I get sent anyway lol) but as I don't have my MINI (Being fixed at a garage atm) i'm not booked on as i'm technically not insured to go on a 999 call using a hire car.. (Wouldn't stop me responding to a Cardiac Arrest though)

Why? I can understand wanting to help, but people need downtime.

DJMK4 · 29 Jan 2011 at 23:05

Morba said:
Why? I can understand wanting to help, but people need downtime.

Maybe he feels its nice to save a life?

Morba · 29 Jan 2011 at 23:07

DJMK4 said:
Maybe he feels its nice to save a life?

It is, i can understand why you would want to help out. But everyone needs to switch off sometimes

DJMK4 · 29 Jan 2011 at 23:11

Morba said:
It is, i can understand why you would want to help out. But everyone needs to switch off sometimes

I guess, I couldn't be one of those people who cant switch off, there is a few people in work like that. Not sure I would know how to cope :rolleyes:

tres · 29 Jan 2011 at 23:13

Morba said:
It is, i can understand why you would want to help out. But everyone needs to switch off sometimes

I'm on call all the time for two emergency services.

Reality is, most of the time is down time. I'm not always on the edge waiting for the call - if anything, I forget I'm on call! It's only when it goes off do I jump into action

Morba · 29 Jan 2011 at 23:15

That is accepting being on call though, West is saying that off duty and when not scheduled to be on call he logs himself on to be on call.

I get the feeling that given your location you arent that busy?

tres · 29 Jan 2011 at 23:21

You'd be surprised! A call out a day isn't uncommon in the busy summer weeks. Doesn't sound a lot, but when a shout can last between 1 and 3 hours each, feels like a very busy week

West · 30 Jan 2011 at 00:28

Morba said:
That is accepting being on call though, West is saying that off duty and when not scheduled to be on call he logs himself on to be on call.

I get the feeling that given your location you arent that busy?

Very much depends.

I live on the boder between two divisional borders. Now that they're on the same CAD System, i'm used by both. It's either really busy or just a couple of calls in a night, no real middle ground to be honest.

I don't work front line for the service (I'm control staff) and I see this as getting the best of both words, helping people in lots of different ways.

And don't get me wrong. I don't do it every single night i'm off. I always do it over night (As I live in an area where the local Ambulance Station only has Vehicles operational till 2am - then the next nearest station is about 5 extra mins away) so I live in an area where literally every minute can potentially count

.Ox. · 31 Jan 2011 at 15:16

I start my first shift of being on call tonight.

One week on, one week off. Swapping over with another guy from work.

He got 3 calls out of all of last month, yet i still think the phone will ring tonight!

DJMK4 · 31 Jan 2011 at 15:19

.Ox. said:
I start my first shift of being on call tonight.

One week on, one week off. Swapping over with another guy from work.

He got 3 calls out of all of last month, yet i still think the phone will ring tonight!

Good luck

I find weekends are worse, weekend just gone I had about 5-6 standby calls. Other times on the weekend I will either get none or one or two. During the week I rarely get 1.

Rich1988 · 31 Jan 2011 at 15:34

ingouk said:
you mean alcoholic right?

yea sorry, I was drunk

citizen0100 · 31 Jan 2011 at 16:37

I do one week a month first line support for a call centre (IT) and another week in the month second line support for the same call centre. Works out quite well as we rarely get calls unless people are locked out.