Stand Back!

[O.C.]

The price of phone calls these days is enough to  give you a heart attack

[Martin#30]

I help run a local charity, and we have has just been through this defibrilator decision dilemma for our village.

In common with lots of rural villages, we have a fairly high elderly/retired population and we are a good 15-20 minutes away from the nearest ambulance station.

There is lots of credible information saying that the first 8 minutes after a stroke or heart attack are vital. After that point, the brain is starved of oxygen and irreversible damage is done.

The idea behind these defibs is if anyone suffers a stroke/arrest in the village, they call 999 *and a local hotline"*. Hotline routes to a number of people, all of whom supposedly rush to the defib box, and take it to the patient asap.

We decided against it alas. The initial cost is high (~£3,000), but the main reason is we found it hard to imagine that in practice, we could reliably get people to the defib box and to the patient in enough time. 8 minutes will disappear very, very quickly.

Martin.   

[mecki]

I guess that when you would really would need one they will be just like any phone booth - vandalized and out-of-order. 
And after the first kid has been tortured to death because a bunch of idiots thought it would be hilarious to film a nerdy kid being 'jump started' and put it on the internet those things will disappear quicker than you can blink. 

[100milesaway]

I guess that when you would really would need one they will be just like any phone booth - vandalized and out-of-order. 
And after the first kid has been tortured to death because a bunch of idiots thought it would be hilarious to film a nerdy kid being 'jump started' and put it on the internet those things will disappear quicker than you can blink. 

[Rusty]

Did my ELS / Ballistic Injuries refresher yesterday and we talked about times and survival rates .. latest stats are.... 15% will be dead before they hit the ground and nothing you can do will bring them back ... and of the other 85% if you can get a Defib on within 2 minutes they have a massive chance of recovery ... much longer than that and the fight is much harder  ... so be quick !

[Lonewolf]

Rusty, I bet your great at parties aren't you, 

[2kwacks]

The price of phone calls these days is enough to  give you a heart attack

funny you should mention the price of phone calls the other day I forgot my mobile phone so needed to use a call box to call the wife, it's been a long time since I've made a call from a bt phone box because I remember it was 10p to start off with. so I was when I needed to put 60p in before I could dial out.

[Lonewolf]

Dont ever try and reverse charges then cause I did that last year and it £5.30 approx per minute. BT it's good to talk.

[O.C.]

funny you should mention the price of phone calls the other day I forgot my mobile phone so needed to use a call box to call the wife, it's been a long time since I've made a call from a bt phone box because I remember it was 10p to start off with. so I was when I needed to put 60p in before I could dial out.

do you still have to push button 'B' 

[Rusty]

£5.30 a minute   

[mecki]

What do you expect?
Who uses a phone booth these days? Even if you can find one that actually works and isn't so filthy that you don't want to go anywhere near it that is? And if you find one that works you'll find that it doesn't have a phone book anyway.
It must cost BT a fortune to fix all those vandalized phone booths over and over only to have them wrecked again within hours.
 

[Lonewolf]

mecki, when needs must you will use them.
Imagine this, June 2011, on the banks of Loch Ness, a beautifully quiet, humid evening in an unspoilt village, you are surrounded by hills for as far as the eye can see. It's like a scene out of a romantic book or film. No vandalism, no urine pooled in the bottom of the only phone box in the village, no litter, no gangs on street corners intimidating tourists or locals. No mobile phone masts or reception and all you wish to do is give your wife a call and let her know how your day has been and enquire how hers has been. Tell her you love her and wish you were with her, so you pick up the receiver and dial......

And then the bastards from BT screw you over for £5.30 a minute I wished I'd just stayed in the pub now. 

[mecki]

It is a simple cost-benefit calculation.
How much does it cost to maintain all phone boxes in the country, not just the one in the village on the shore of Loch Ness?
How many people use the few that work and how many calls do they make?
So how much do you need to charge for a phone call to still make a profit from phone boxes?
BT is a private company after all, they are not there to provide a service, the only aim is to make money for their shareholders.

BTW when I was in Scotland last year we saw a phone box in the middle of nowhere with just one house across the road.

[Lonewolf]

As we say in the job, your comments are noted, now move along.