SINGLE EUROPEAN EMERGENCY CALL NUMBER - 112 IN RELATION TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

Abstract

A single European emergency call number - 112 has become well fixed in people’s consciousness in the Republic of Slovenia in the seven years of its existence. This is shown not least by the more than ten percent increase in the number of calls each year of the last few years. A very significant share of all calls are related to services of emergency medical assistance. Over the years and with rising standards in the area of protection, rescue and assistance and the development of information and telecommunication technologies, existing technical solutions for the transfer of calls between regional call centres and of emergency medical services have been shown to be inadequate. We therefore decided in 2004 set up on a trial basis better quality links with the Ambulance Station of the University Clinical Centre in Ljubljana, which will meet stricter standards in the area of protection, rescue and assistance and, at the same time, has followed the guidelines of the European Union in this field. In addition to the current mediation of calls, we also transmit other important data about a call and simultaneously enable high quality radio links for ambulances of the emergency medical services through the ZARE PLUS radio system. We plan in the future to introduce the same method of linkage with emergency medical services in the remaining regions.