The emergency services received almost 500,000 calls on the dedicated 112 number last year, but 7,200 calls were hoaxes.

The high number of fake calls prompted Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela this morning to send out a message to the public that the time spent addressing hoax calls could be better used to save lives.   

He addressed a crowd that gathered at City gate to mark the 112 Awareness Day. Posters carrying the message, ‘ Keep Calm and call 112” were displayed.

The 112 emergency number is manned by the police but the task of addressing calls is shared with  the army, the civil protection department and the ambulance service.  

Police Commissioner Michael Cassar said the unit would be setting up a new number to cater for people with disabilities, such as the deaf, who are unable to make an emergency call.

A text message can be sent to number 7977 0112 that would come up on the screens of staff manning the emergency number.

A report by the European Commission last year pointed out that nearly one in three callers to the emergency number abandon their call when operators fail to pick up. The EC urged Malta to step up its game.

Last year’s report showed that the number of calls received was 521,000 but close to 30 per cent of callers abandoned the call after they failed to get a response.

This year, the centre received a similar number of calls – around 183,000 callers hung up before the call could be answered.