Re: 112 – The European Emergency Call Number

Dear Editor,

I would like to thank your correspondent Georg von der Howen for his letter in last week’s Resident, as it is a subject of public interest and importance.

When a service such as this does not meet the required standards, which appears to be the case on this occasion, then it is important to establish what the failings were so improvements can be made.

I have, therefore, contacted Georg von der Howen, who has been most helpful in providing additional information, so Safe Communities Portugal could take this up with the appropriate authority, which we have done.

In this case, it appears that the 112 call would have been passed to CODU (Urgent Patient Guidance Centre) operated by INEM. It is the responsibility of CODU to respond to and evaluate the requests for help received in the shortest possible time, with the aim of determining the necessary and appropriate resources for each case. It is operated by teams of qualified professionals (Doctors and Technicians) with specific training to provide assistance, sorting, advice, selection and dispatch of rescue means (the 112 article, published in the April 14 edition, did not cover the work of CODU).

Whereas this incident occurred a year ago and the exact date not yet established, it may still be possible to establish the precise sequence of events. Whilst this is being examined, on a more general note, the letter does raise a number of broader issues and that is: i) the Advanced Mobile Location (AML) function, ii) the use of GPS coordinates and iii) the comment made that, “at a later date”, your correspondent was advised by a local Bombeiro (from Ourique) to “always have the phone number of the local Bombeiros with you, so you can call them directly in case of an emergency in your home area”.

I have discussed this with a senior Civil Protection operations official who is also a Bombeiros Commander, and he reaffirmed that the position of the Bombeiros is that all emergency calls should be made to 112. This is because these command centres are structured and equipped to enable the response to emergencies to be: properly coordinated; providing immediate overthe-phone life-saving instructions given by doctors/technicians when necessary; enabling simultaneous contact with all those services that may be involved, as well as maintaining overall monitoring of the incident – start to finish.

Regarding the use of GPS coordinates, these are commonly used in dealing with emergency responses and callers should use these if needed in confirming a location. A reminder that, in an emergency situation, to speak as clearly as possible and slowly in giving numbers to reduce the possibility of errors.

Regarding the AML, regardless of it being a Portuguese number and the fact that, in this case, the phone used was a newer model, I understand that the accuracy in establishing exactly where the call originates depends on the signal strength in the area from which the call is made, as I mentioned in the article.

The issues raised will be examined and, hopefully from this, lessons can be learned and improvements made. Safe Communities will be monitoring the follow up and continue to liaise with your correspondent.

More about dealing with emergencies and the use of 112 can be found on our website www. safecommunitiesportugal.com