Davao Central 911 seeking to adopt new navigation app

DAVAO CITY – The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) here is seeking to adopt a Global Positioning System or GPS made popular by mobile applications or apps such as Waze and Grab to assist patients seeking emergency care to keep track of ambulances responding to their calls.

This, as the office requested for six more advanced life support, and two special care ambulances to add to its fleet of 30 ambulances throughout the city.

Currently, the city only has basic life support ambulances.

Lyndon Ancajas, training and admin officer at the CDRRMO, said that the current system does not allow patients and ambulances to estimate the distance and expected arrival of immediate emergency response.

With the development of the app, Ancajas said, patients seeking ambulances will see through their mobile devices how far the ambulances are and their expected time of arrival.

Ancajas added that the process would reduce the anxiety of the callers, as well as Central 911 coordinators, about the distance and time away of incoming ambulances. The app is still in development. A private company has donated a Central 911 app to the CDRRMO, and is being widely used as an alternative response application in case the user can afford the data and does not have call privileges.

The app allows the user to have an idea about the nearest fire or police station, as well as hospitals.