site.bta112 Emergency Calls to Reach Ambulance Services Faster

110 EMERGENCIES - TELEPHONE NUMBER - ANNIVERSARY

112 Emergency Calls
to Reach Ambulance Services
Faster


Sofia, September 27 (BTA) - A change in the operating mode of the 112 National Emergency Call System will shorten the time in which emergency calls reach ambulance services from 2-3 minutes now to some 10-15 seconds, Bulgarian Deputy Health Minister Boyko Penkov said here on Thursday. He explained that this will happen in parallel with the implementation of new hardware which will make it possible to answer up to 3,000 calls on a single line.

The 10th birthday of the Bulgarian National Emergency Call System was marked on September 27.

Besides these, the ERs of the large hospitals will be interfaced with the ambulance services, which will enable ambulance crews to provide a particular ER with information about the incoming patient, which is impossible at present.

The National System Director Tsvetomir Tsekov explained that work is underway on an entirely new platform which will be able to receive even video calls. An application enabling people with impaired hearing and vision to call will also be introduced.

During its first ten years, 112 received 44 million calls, with the number peaking in 2012. The number of hoax calls has been steadily decreasing, while calls about real emergencies have been increasing and now exceed 53 per cent of the total. An operator handles some 200 calls on the average every day. RQ/LG

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