Interesting Facts

According to a survey carried out by Mumsnet, 1 in 3 children in the UK haven't been taught how to dial the emergency number, 999. (More worryingly, many children in the UK don't know the difference between 999 and 911 (the US emergency number). It's something you should teach, in the hopes it's never needed.)

In the UK there were 6.3 million 999 calls (emergency ambulance calls) made in the last year. (This is almost double the number of calls received 10 years ago. The number of immediately life-threatening incidents (termed Category A) was 1.8 million. A category A call is for those life-threatening conditions where the speed of response may be critical in saving life or improving the outcome for the patient, e.g. heart attack, serious bleeding, etc.) Listen Here

In the UK you can dial the emergency services with 112 as well as 999. (Of course, when questioned, no one in Britain knew this, but it is the European emergency number, so it makes sense.)