Rescue 1122 maintains average response time of 6.4 minutes

PESHAWAR: By responding to 26,997 calls for help in the provincial capital since August 2010, the Rescue 1122 has been a success in providing immediate relief to the people in time of need.
Another 22,964 calls for help by the victims of blasts, traffic accidents, fire, medical emergency, drowning and other incidents were entertained by the department in Mardan since the services were extended there in November 2012.
The statistics showed that Rescue 1122 provided immediate relief to victims in the aftermath of 339 blasts, 186 building collapses, 430 cases of drowning and 1,580 incidents of violence, crime and robberies.
The rescuers responded in 6,431 traffic accidents in Peshawar over the last four and a half years while its teams rushed to the spot in 7,075 road mishaps in Mardan since November 2012.
Medical technicians and rescuers of the Rescue 1122 provided treatment in at least 17,111 cases of medical emergency in Peshawar and another 13,944 in Mardan.
“For us it is not only duty but also social work. We are making efforts to improve our services to reduce the response time. Apart from our stations, we have deployed ambulances and rescue vehicles all over Peshawar,” Dr Asad Ali Khan, Director General of the Rescue 1122 told The News.
The service was launched by the previous coalition government of the Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to deal with emergency situations, especially in Peshawar that was suffering terrorist attacks almost every day. The services of the department are to be extended to three other districts soon.
“We also encourage females in recruitment to help the lady victims in case of any emergency. One such lady staff member proved a real help when a woman gave birth in one of our ambulances due to the traffic jam while on way to hospital,” Dr Asad Ali Khan said.
The Rescue 1122 has rescued and hospitalized 51,156 patients and victims of various incidents in Mardan and Peshawar. Among them, 12,517 were provided first-aid and 36,756 were hospitalized. The rescuers also took 449 bodies from the spot of incidents in both the districts while 1,429 were taken from hospital where they had expired.
There have been complaints by the politicians and victims in some cases that the rescue personnel could not reach the spot in time or were not properly equipped. However, officials of the department maintained that they responded well on time in case of any incident.
“The average response time in case of an emergency in Peshawar is only 6.4 minutes while it was further reduced to 5.77 minutes in Mardan,” Bilal Ahmad Faizi, spokesman for the Rescue 1122, told The News.
The number of calls received by the department is huge. At least 13,25,630 calls were received in Peshawar and 768,753 in Mardan. In Peshawar, 375,342 calls were made for information collection, 429,248 calls were obnoxious and irrelevant, and 515,282 either dropped or could not connect.
The number of calls made for information in Mardan remained 256,115 while 160,865 were irrelevant and 333,369 calls dropped.“I called at the 1122 when a friend of mine met a road accident on the Ring Road. They called me back within no time to confirm and know about the exact address and then rescuers responded within 5 or 6 minutes to take him to hospital,” said Dr Shaukat Ali, a social worker from Garhi Qamardin.
There were at least 5,599 fake calls made to the Rescue 1122 in Peshawar and another 1,278 in Mardan, without realizing that engaging the rescuers at a place unnecessarily may cause a loss at another spot in case of an incident.The officials responded to at least 154 fake calls in Peshawar and 162 in Mardan. They came to know the calls were a fake when they reached the spot.