Sunday, 15th November 2009
One in three emergency calls are not answered
EC following 112 implementation closely
One in three phone calls made to Malta's official emergency number remains unanswered, The Sunday Times has learnt.
This means that every year more than 310,000 calls to the 112 emergency line operated by the Maltese police fails to be picked up. Other EU countries have an unanswered percentage rate of between zero and 6.5 per cent.
Sources said European Commission officials were recently in Malta to try to understand why the system was so poor, but police have denied being "directly approached".
The police blamed Malta's poor record on blocked lines caused by prank callers or those who called when there was no genuine emergency. They added that some people did not allow enough time for their calls to be answered.
However, sources said the reasons for the poor response rate were more likely due to a lack of resources, mismanagement of the system or misuse of the system in that it may be being used for internal calls by police.
The control room, which is manned by a minimum of three police officers at any given moment, receives almost two calls per minute of the day, which means it is practically impossible that they are all emergency calls, particularly as only 17 per cent of the population are aware of the 112 emergency number, sources said.
The authorities have not yet forwarded the unanswered calls rate to the European Commission, even though they were asked to do so some months ago.
Although the police provided The Sunday Times with figures relating to the number of unanswered calls, these did not feature in a report drawn up by the EC which examined the implementation of the European-wide service in all EU states.
The only statistic mentioned in what is known as the Cocom report, is that Maltese operators take approximately one hour to trace where the calls originated from - and that is only within office hours.
Most other EU countries do this immediately or within a couple of minutes.
According to the police, a task force has been set up to improve the service, and in July it drew up a comprehensive report highlighting what needed to be done.
The police said there are three consoles in their control room and all calls are handled by policemen who are trained in call-handling and dealing with emergency calls.
The police also said that, depending on the nature of the emergency, callers were either directed to the Civil Protection Department or to Mater Dei Hospital, unless more information is required from the caller.
Sources said this was an inappropriate policy since emergency callers should be kept on the line at all times while operators should dispatch help through another line.
The police also pointed out that because of the way the system was structured, unanswered calls were directed at once to the Civil Protection Department or the hospital.
A spokesman for the European Commission told The Sunday Times it was following 112's implementation "very closely" as it does in all EU states, but added that in Malta, there was no infringement and no public complaints had been received.
Emergency 112 in numbers
• Telephone consoles: Three
• Phone operators: Minimum of three
• Total calls every six months: 456,000
• Percentage of unanswered calls: January to June 2008: 33.2%
• Percentage of unanswered calls: January to March 2009: 33.7%
• Total calls received in 2008: 932,253
• Approximate number of unanswered calls in 2008: 310,751
• Percentage of Maltese who know the purpose of 112: 17%
RSS
Comments
I called 112 and asked the lady to put me through to my closest Police Station. She hanged up on me. I called again, she hanged up when she heard my voice again. I called 196 Ambulance, I called Civil Protection, I called 191Police and THE SAME LADY was picking up my calls on all emergency lines and hanging up on me! On one of calls I managed to say " Don't hang up, I am calling to Police, she replied " Go and file a report to Police Station" and hanged up again. I stopped mobile Police car and showed them my call logs. They called the lady and told her at least give chance to people to explain what the matter is.
Some 2 months later,when I saw a black smoke in residental area, the same lady's voice answered 112 and hanged up, she did not even put me through to Civil Protection like I asked her to.
To put one iresponsible person in charge for all emergency calls for the Country, is ... even for micky mouse land.
Greater London is bigger than Malta, but one rarely hears of a a London ambulance driver getting lost!
Is there such a thing as an emergency services professional in these islands?
Of course we need to improve and the best way to that is for the Governemnt to look deep into the human resources and even the unemplyed who can do such a job with great results.
Probably this is another proof of who do you know instead of what you know syndrome.
To Mr.Rob Cameron,
Apart from the fact that your comment has nothing to do with the topic, I find your comment quite distasteful and out of order.
You have generalised the Maltese and Gozitans.
You should get your priorities right, stop patronising and stop acting like an ex-colonial person.
Are all these calls really 'emergency' calls. I wonder. Like everything this system is being abused.
Also, let's say an officer of these has a call of nature, that takes off 33% of ability. THree officers is a ridiculous number.
THe commissioner himself probably has two officers acting as his drivers, just driving him from point A to B and maybe act as messengers. Same goes for every other high ranking officer from Superintendent up, which easily eats up about 60 or more police officers. But having these positions in place obviously means that there are not enough officers so that we place a few more per shift in the control room, right?
Re-organisation. Send the non-performers to pension and replace with functioning officers, restructure administration and get in people who really want to improve things for the good of everyone.
For 112, hope you get your call picked up when you need to!
First of all, all 112 calls should reveal the caller's ID whether or not the caller chooses to block the number. Secondly, telephone companies should be legislated into registering and maintaining the names and addresses related to a number in a central database for 112 calls so that call tracing is instant. Third, this responsibility should not be in police hands but rather in the hands of an independent agency commissioned by the EU and proportionately paid for by all member states, and all 112 calls should go straight to the first available 112 call centre out of many spread out over the EU... perhaps including one in Malta. Also, there has to be tough legislation in place which imposes harsh penaties for abuse of the system.
Perhaps we can learn form the systems already in place in Canada and the United States where an emergency call never goes unanswered and tracing is instant. If someone calls and cuts off, the emergency response still knows who the call came from and immediately dispatches emergency services regardless.
I did not call for an emergency but rather waited until the situation was better. However due to lack of efficiency in local police stations, people are forced to call the 112 number.
The figures quoted here mean that that there are around a million calls on the "emergency line" every year for a population of barely 400,000 people. That means that every Maltese citizen - including children and babies make almost two-and-a-half phone calls each a year!!!
Isn't that just a tad ridiculous? My guess is that the service is being abused rampantly. There is little else that the authorities should do other then finding a way to stem the abuse to get a top-notch service.
At my place of work, we are taught that we should not leave our phone ring more than 3 times, apart from the fact that after some time the line is shifted on to another desk (hunting).
One would never know the urgency and importance of a phone call, emanating from whoever let alone having a dedicated national emergency phone service.
When are we going to stop blaming one another and give a decent service? Having said that, there needs to be more awareness of the emergency number itself and people who abuse of such service should be heavily reprimanded.
In fact, now that the Control Room is supervised by a Sgt Major when previously it was supervised by an Inspector, the method of rotation brings inexperienced officers handling emergency calls. Over and above this, there is no emergency equipment at all in the Control Room, but just three telephones which the Police call consoles.
Back in the years, Malta Police officers had attended 112 seminars and conferences abroad to learn that Malta is still in the Middle Ages with regards the Emergency Control Room and system.
Maybe the country can do without marble floors and invest more in the Control Room and use its experienced officers. We will soon be in 2010!!