As both an EMT, FF, and dispatcher for fire, ems, and law enforcment, I can tell you that thing are not always as they appear which is something that I did not really know till I started working in the bat cave myself, I would love to send everything that anyone asked for but sometimes I just dont have it, or sending it will take away something from my system that I need to get something else done, Its kind of like playing a game of chess, and sadly we never have enough pieces. I know that sound cold, but I can tell you a couple of things If you are in trouble I will always send help, If I have to leave the bat cave come out there and throw a radio at them I will, If I have it and you ask for it, and I dont send it to you there is a reason, it could be that I am watching one of the call takers take a call for there area, I may have them staged in there station because pd is down the road on a high risk warrant, and Instead of paging them out and waking them up I decided that they could sleep, because I trusted them that when I hit that tone they would be out of that station in less than a minute. When you go to an assault and I dont send first responders, It may be because I have already talked to the deputies and Its just b.s. and there is no reason to put additional units on the road that have the potential to run into one another, (yes it happens alot) or cause a wake related accident, In its best form a system status controler, aka dispatcher (or as I prefer to be called radio) has the duty to look after the system, balancing the risk vs rewards of everything that happens in the system, I can not tell you how well it works in your area, sometimes I can not tell you how well it works in my area, I can only speak for the ideal and the ideal is good, it involves protocals, balanced by discretion. It depends on the medical director, control center, management, and the field crews all working together to take what has historcally been a system of a single ambulance going to help a single pt to an operation that is multi faceted, working to service an area with a well balanced responsive system that looks at the needs of a whole community.
