NHS call handlers are quitting amid burnout at dealing with 999 calls about suicides, stabbings and shootings and the long delays before ambulances reach patients.
The pressure is so intense that 27% of control room staff in ambulance services across Britain have left their jobs over the last three years, NHS figures show.
Many feel overwhelmed by the demands of their roles, unsupported by their employers and powerless to help patients who are facing life-or-death emergencies, according to a report by Unison, with some resigning within a year of starting the role.
Call handlers get so stressed that they took an average of 33 sick days a year each between 2021/22 and 2024/25, data obtained by the union also showed. That is far higher than the average four days taken off sick by workers in the UK overall.
A report by Unison found that call handlers’ jobs have become increasingly challenging in recent years as the demand for care, which rose during Covid, has remained consistently high since, while ambulance handover delays outside hospitals have worsened.
In March control room staff in England, Scotland and Wales answered more than 700,000 calls – more than 22,000 a day.
“These findings paint a bleak picture of the conditions faced by 999 control room staff. TV programmes about ambulance services don’t show things as they really are,” said Christina McAnea, the Unison general secretary.
Unison’s report said: “Relentless exposure to traumatic and increasingly complex incidents, verbal abuse, long shifts and low pay are contributing to stress, burnout and fatigue.
One call handler told Unison: “Some shifts are overwhelmingly traumatic, with 90% of the calls of a distressing nature. One shift, I handled three road traffic accidents and two cardiac arrests.”
“There’s a persistent pressure to remain on the phone, no matter how emotionally drained we are.”
Another had dealt with four different calls about suicide in the same shift.
A third said: “It’s relentless. You log in, take emotionally intense calls for 12 hours straight and then go home.
“Certain calls stay with you. I once spoke to a distressed mother whose daughter had suffered life-changing burns. The panic in her voice is something I’ll never forget.”
Several call handlers identified lack of support for dealing with the emotional and psychological impact of their jobs as a key reason why so many people leave.
Unison obtained data from 11 of the UK’s 13 NHS regional ambulance services. They also found that some call handlers end up being off sick for several months because of stress and trauma, 80% of the South East Coast ambulance service’s (Secamb) call handlers left during 2023/24, and that Secamb also had the highest average number of days off sick taken by its call handlers – 54 days each in 2023/24.
NHS England said call handlers played a vital role in the urgent and emergency care system and admitted that they needed to do more to support them. A spokesperson said: “We know there is more to do and the health service is committed to tackling burnout by continuing to offer more flexible working options.”
In the UK and Ireland,Samaritanscan be contacted on freephone 116 123, or emailjo@samaritans.orgorjo@samaritans.ie. Youth suicide charityPapyruscan be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or emailpat@papyrus-uk.org. In the US, you can call or text theNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineon 988, chat on988lifeline.org, ortext HOMEto 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support serviceLifelineis 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found atbefrienders.org