This evening – Monday, 13 October 2025 – Channel 4 is broadcasting a Dispatches documentary about the pressures on UK ambulance services.
The hour-long documentary – called ‘999 Undercover: NHS in Crisis’ – includes covert filming carried out in our Medway Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) by an undercover journalist between May and July of this year.
The journalist joined SECAmb as an Emergency Medical Advisor (999 call taker) and has since left the Trust.
This documentary was made without the Trust’s knowledge or consent, and we have not been allowed to see the footage before it is broadcast.
We take any breach of patient confidentiality and breach of trust between colleagues extremely seriously and recognise that patients who called us during this period and our colleagues who work in Medway EOC may be concerned.
We have been informed by the programme makers that patients and colleagues filmed without consent have been anonymised and that the documentary has been prepared in accordance with the Ofcom Code.
If, as a patient, you have a particular concern, please contact our PALS team – pet@secamb.nhs.uk or telephone 0300 1239 242.
However, if you wish to make a general complaint about the filming of this documentary, you can contact Ofcom – Complain about TV, radio or on demand services
We are extremely proud of our colleagues who work in our two Emergency Operations Centres, who answer and respond to thousands of 999 calls every day, doing a difficult job, often in challenging circumstances.
We recognise that some patients are waiting longer for an ambulance response than we would want or expect and we are taking steps to address this and to future-proof our service to respond to ever-growing demand
We provided the below statement to the programme makers.
A SECAmb spokesperson said:
“We’re incredibly proud of our control centre teams, who work tirelessly, often in challenging circumstances, to provide the highest standards of care, responding to almost a million 999 calls every year.
“We know there are challenges in consistently meeting national performance standards for all ambulance trusts, particularly for Category 2 emergencies and mental health cases.
“However, since our CQC inspection in 2022, we’ve made significant strides forward and continue to push for further improvement.
“We remain committed to achieving the Cat 2 target for those who need urgent care the most. While we recognise that some patients’ experiences may fall short of our expectations, we are determined to learn from these and strengthen our response.
“At the same time, we’re transforming how we deliver services to ensure care is sustainable in the face of rising demand.
“Innovations such as urgent care hubs and virtual care are already making a difference—helping us improve performance and ensuring patients receive the right care, first time.”