Rescue 1122 rescued over 1.2m victims in 2019

LAHORE:Punjab Emergency Service Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer has said Rescue 1122 rescued over 1,287,635 emergency victims while responding to 1,192,044 emergencies in 2019.

During its operations, Rescue 1122 maintained its average response time of seven minutes and standard in all districts of Punjab. The data showed that the number of emergencies increased in 2019 as compared to 1,036,022 emergencies in 2018.

Dr Rizwan Naseer chaired a meeting held to review annual performance at Rescue Headquarters here on Wednesday. The meeting was briefed about all Punjab rescue operations, including road crashes, medical emergencies, fire, building collapse, crime, drowning, explosions and fall from height.

Rescue 1122 Head of Operations Ayaz Aslam briefed that 344,104 road accidents occurred across Punjab in 2019 as compared to 332,516 road accidents in 2018, an increase of three per cent in 2019. Similarly, 18,379 fire incidents were reported in all 36 districts of Punjab in 2019 whereas some 17,596 cases of fire were reported in 2018, an increase of 4.4 per cent in 2019. Rescue 1122 managed 674,591 medical emergencies in 2019 whereas it responded to 555,014 medical cases in 2018 which show an increase of 21.5 per cent last year.

Also, the Punjab Emergency Service responded to 29,425 calls related to crime in 2019 as compared to 25,302 in 2018, an increase of 16 per cent in case. A total of 177 explosions were reported in 2019 in Punjab as compared to 141 such cases in 2018.

The Service also responded to 1,339 cases of drowning, 25,322 of fall from height, 777 of building collapse and 97,930 miscellaneous incidents. Motorbike Ambulance Service responded 306,019 emergencies with average response time of four minutes in all divisional headquarters of Punjab in 2019.

The Rescue 1122 DG said that during the last 15 years, Rescue 1122 has emerged as a successful model of emergency services delivery. He said that Punjab Emergency Service achieved unique and historic milestones in 2019 in which UN INSARAG classification for Pakistan even first in the SAARC countries were included. It launched the Rescue Lost Victim Helpline-1192 to reunite the victims of road accidents, emergencies and disasters with their families. Rescue 1122 also established the community emergency response teams (CERTs) in all union councils of Punjab.