Boosting emergency response system in Ghana: Why 112 is the sure bet
When I was in basic school, one of the storybooks I enjoyed reading was “Stories from Aesop”. Though it contained very interesting stories, I was fond of the one titled “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”.
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The little boy, who took care of his father’s sheep, took delight in pulling a fast one on the villagers at all times. He would go to the fields with the sheep and run back shouting at the top of his voice, “Help, wolf, wolf!” The villagers would take their weapons and set out on a rescue mission, only for this boy to poke fun at their folly.
In fact, it almost became a source of entertainment for him. But, that fateful day, luck eluded him. While in the field with the sheep, a wolf attacked and began eating the sheep up. He came as usual, sweating profusely and shouting for help. But no one paid attention to him. “He is at it again!,” they thought, and sat unconcerned. But before the reality dawned on them, the harm had been caused. The flock was gone. Even though I read this story several times, I never thought about the message it carried until I began thinking about the state of the emergency response system in the country.
On a daily basis, the tooting of the siren from the National Ambulance Service (NAS), the Ghana Police Service (GPS), the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and other security agencies alerts the public to an emergency somewhere.
The hundred dollar question however, is do we have a robust Emergency Response System (ERS) to deal with emergencies? What about the wolf cries?
On countless occasions people in emergency situations have remained helpless, both because they did not know where and how to call for help or people took their call for “another joke of the day”.
In the first instance, the person in dire need may not know off head the emergency contact lines of the various emergency and security agencies such as 192 for the GNFS, 191 for the GPS, 18555 for the NADMO, and 193 for the ambulance service. It is in the light of this that the introduction of the 112 ERS must be seen as welcoming news.
The new paradigm (112 ERS)
The 112 ERS is a central contact system that has been rolled out to meet the needs of the public in times of an emergency.
Also called the Public Safety Assembly Point (PSAP), the 112 ERS seeks to establish a common point of contact that would receive and route calls to the appropriate security services for prompt response. .
The 112 ERS is internationally approved by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for all emergency calls in Africa and Europe as part of the standardisation process aimed at enhancing global response to emergencies.
In view of this, all mobile phones being sent to Africa and Europe have the 112 installed in them such that it becomes easier to call for support during emergencies, with or without access to network.
To ensure that Ghana meets the international standards, the government, through the Ministry of Communications, started the 112 ERS. Currently, there are two operational centres in Accra and Kumasi to serve the southern and northern sectors respectively.
So, what makes the 112 the preferred ERS option?
In an interview with Mr Michael Adjei Takyi, the Principles Manager in charge of Programmes at the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC), the government agency in charge of rolling out the 112 ERS, he explained that the system was communal in nature.
“We have advanced plans and processes to complete the next phase which is targeted at setting up centres in Ho, Tamale, and Takoradi. With time, we will replicate it in all the regions and districts to enhance access by the public.”
“The difficulty is that one centre requires 45 personnel to manage. What this means is that 450 personnel will be needed to operate the centres in all the regions. The other side of it, however, is that it will create a lot of employment opportunities, especially if it is eventually rolled out across the districts,” he said.
It is also heart-warming to note that the public would be spared the daunting task of memorising emergency lines of all the security agencies.
The fact that the 112 is toll-free, allows calls from any phone, including public phones and locked phones, which are programmed to do so by default, makes it efficient.
Trained Emergency Dispatchers (TED), including highly specialised Emergency Medical Dispatchers, answer distress calls which are categorised and routed to the appropriate emergency respondents based on the nature of the emergency.
The 112 ERS also provides specialised computers that are able to record and display the location of callers through the Automatic Location Identification (ALI) platform for dispatchers to know the location of the caller and take prompt action.
Prank calls
Just like that boy who shouted “wolf” when there was no wolf, the ERS has been abused by many who use it for unintended purposes. Figures at the Accra ERS centre for January 2016 indicated that only 201 out of the 526,965 calls received were real emergency calls. The other 526,764 calls were pranks. This shows a daily average of 16,998 calls out of which 16,992 were prank calls. Also, 57 of the emergency calls were routed to the GPS, 144 to the GNFS, while the NADMO and NAS had none.
“Some people called the centre just for fun. For instance, someone called and said ‘don’t cut the line because I am listening to Yen Ara Asase Ne. Another said, ‘I need school fees’. All these are not helping the system,” Mr Takyi of GIFEC lamented.
The crux of the matter
In a nutshell, the public need to know that the 112 ERS has come to stay. So, at home, at the workplace, religious gatherings, and other social functions, preach the “gospel”. Who knows, that singular act might save a soul. Remember, no “wolf cries.”