Blogs > Life in the UK

Emergency Services within the UK

• September 21, 2022

The UK has three main emergency services available which are:

• Police service
• Fire service
• Ambulance service

The purpose of these emergency services is to ensure public safety and health is being upheld, dealing with certain types of emergencies and some ad-hoc emergencies. The services involve saving lives and to rescue, to protect properties and the prevention of escalation.

To access these services, you can call either 999 or 112. These numbers are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from a mobile or landline and can be accessed by calling either 999 or 112 form a mobile or landline, where a call handler will respond with “emergency, which service” Using a geographically located emergency service control room the call will be transferred to service close to the location you made the call.

Who is able to use these services?

The emergency services are a free service offered to any person currently in the UK. Therefore, if you are in the UK on a Skilled worker visa you will have access to the police, fire brigade and NHS.

Non-Emergency Helpline

The police and NHS released a new number to assist in situation when a person needs help in a non-emergency situation.  The phone line is free to call from a landline and mobile and open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The number was introduced to improve access to the police and NHS to reduce the amount of non-emergency calls received.

Important Numbers

Emergency Number - 999

Non-emergency number – 101 or 111

How can we help?

If you’re an international doctor looking to relocate to the UK please email your CV to [email protected] and we can support you in securing an NHS post and on your journey to relocate to the UK.

Are you a member of our Facebook group? When you join IMG Advisor, you join a community of doctors all looking to relocate to the UK and join the NHS. We post a series of vlogs and blogs to the group every day. We will also be on hand to answer all of your relocation queries.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel! We have over 100 videos on everything you need to know about relocating to the UK and joining the NHS!

Listen to BDI Resourcing on the go to IMG Advisor the Podcast. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Buzzsprout. We have a number of episodes with tips and advice on relocating to the UK and the routes you can take to achieve this.