Dear Editor,
Our National Security Minister Peter Bunting recently said the military forces of Caribbean and Latin American countries should now start planning to deal with public emergencies arising from a possible Ebola outbreak. Good thinking!
Now, does the honourable minister have a plan for the implementation of a functional 119 emergency call centre operation? I ask because it doesn't matter what highfalutin headlines are made, if things are muddled on the ground the best made plans will amount to naught.
My friend's own 2014 experience, in calling 119 after a motor vehicle accident was witnessed on one of our highways, was 13 unanswered phone calls to the 119 emergency number. What then might we expect of a major national emergency, like an Ebola epidemic, where it is critical to isolate and manage the case before further contact and spread?
During a speech in April 2014, we were promised a functioning emergency call centre. How will emergency calls be handled in the event of a national emergency? Are LIME operators the ones who really handle emergency calls and are they trained in emergency protocols? Do they still have to re-route calls to the problematic JCF call centre? Is the upgrade of the Police Control Centre now a reality? I read that the police were in discussions with LIME to install a state-of-the-art telephone system to efficiently handle emergency calls.
In June, two months after that promise, the police reported problems again with their 119 emergency number. The then commissioner of police admitted that the system was dropping calls. As a result, calls to the emergency number were not being processed satisfactorily and could have been putting lives at risk. So regarding this regional military cooperation, sequencing in implementation is crucial.
If we have skipped the smaller steps to go talk about multinational cooperation without fixing the very basics, we are setting up ourselves for failure. We do not need expert judgement or a project management institute designation to know this. The best made emergency response mechanisms will fail if our 119 system is awry. Let's fix the smaller things even as we talk big about regional military cooperation.
Concerned Citizen
concernedcitizen25000@gmail.com
Dance ah yard... fix 119 system
-->
Our National Security Minister Peter Bunting recently said the military forces of Caribbean and Latin American countries should now start planning to deal with public emergencies arising from a possible Ebola outbreak. Good thinking!
Now, does the honourable minister have a plan for the implementation of a functional 119 emergency call centre operation? I ask because it doesn't matter what highfalutin headlines are made, if things are muddled on the ground the best made plans will amount to naught.
My friend's own 2014 experience, in calling 119 after a motor vehicle accident was witnessed on one of our highways, was 13 unanswered phone calls to the 119 emergency number. What then might we expect of a major national emergency, like an Ebola epidemic, where it is critical to isolate and manage the case before further contact and spread?
During a speech in April 2014, we were promised a functioning emergency call centre. How will emergency calls be handled in the event of a national emergency? Are LIME operators the ones who really handle emergency calls and are they trained in emergency protocols? Do they still have to re-route calls to the problematic JCF call centre? Is the upgrade of the Police Control Centre now a reality? I read that the police were in discussions with LIME to install a state-of-the-art telephone system to efficiently handle emergency calls.
In June, two months after that promise, the police reported problems again with their 119 emergency number. The then commissioner of police admitted that the system was dropping calls. As a result, calls to the emergency number were not being processed satisfactorily and could have been putting lives at risk. So regarding this regional military cooperation, sequencing in implementation is crucial.
If we have skipped the smaller steps to go talk about multinational cooperation without fixing the very basics, we are setting up ourselves for failure. We do not need expert judgement or a project management institute designation to know this. The best made emergency response mechanisms will fail if our 119 system is awry. Let's fix the smaller things even as we talk big about regional military cooperation.
Concerned Citizen
concernedcitizen25000@gmail.com
Dance ah yard... fix 119 system
-->