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roundtownnews.com
Issue 62
3-9 Jan 2014
Emergency line answers nearly 16 million calls by Keith Nicol MURCIA’S EMERGENCY telephone number, 1-1-2 has grown tenfold over the last fourteen years. The single emergency telephone number 1-1-2 Murcia, run by the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Services, has served a total of 15,891,849 calls, representing an average of 3,100 calls per day, since its introduction in 1999. The number of calls “has undergone a major evolution in the past 14 years,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Manuel Campos last week, who, accompanied by the Director General of Public Safety and Emergency Services, Luis Gestoso, visited the HQ of the telephone service. Last month, the service’s multilingual staff treated nearly 32,000 calls in English, French, German or Arabic plus calls in Spanish too, mostly relating to health emergencies, public safety and traffic, medical consultations and inquiries. Campos explained that the phone service received 105,325
Health emergencies are the most common reason to call
calls in its first year growing to more than 1,045,000 in 2013. In recent years, a stabilization of the number of calls to the emergency number, has occurred, which stands at an average of 1,135,132 calls annually. “The Region of Murcia has reached a high level of safety, quality of life and confidence thanks to 1-1-2,” said Manuel Campos. The Minister stressed that the 1-1-2 Murcia ensures coordination between the various agencies responsible for emergency management, thanks to the number of interconnected services, 23 in total, including 4 located in the Emergency Coordination Centre with another 19 remote centres.
From the calls received, since it came into operation on 1st January 1999, 1-1-2 has had emergency services directly respond to 4,965,424 cases, more than 970 incidents a day. By type of emergencies, health emergencies are the most common reason to call, accounting for 32.46 percent, followed by issues related to public safety and traffic, with 24.42 percent, and requests for information, with 20.53%. Of the 31,914 calls answered in other languages, the largest number corresponded to calls in English with 19,906 (61.37%) followed by Arabic, with 6,394 calls (20.03%), in French, with 3,617 calls (11.33%) and German with 1,997 calls (6.25%).