Movie review score
5
EMERGENCY SERVICE(RESCUE1122)
Policy 2002-2007
Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) is the first successfully tested model of trained Emergency Service in Pakistan. The Government of Punjab has established this Emergency Service through legislation to provide a system for Emergency Preparedness, Response and Prevention. The Service has been established for proper management of emergencies such as road traffic accidents, buildings collapse, explosions, hazardous material incidents, fires and disasters. This Service has already been a great success by rescuing over 36,000 victims of emergencies since October, 2004 by providing efficient and effective response, rescue, emergency medical treatment and safe transportation to helpless victims of Accidents, Emergencies and Disasters whom earlier people were afraid to help due to medico-legal reasons. Based on the success of this trained emergency service in Lahore its role has been expanded to include Rescue, Fire, Disaster preparedness and response. The expansion of this comprehensive Emergency Response Infrastructure to other cities of Punjab is underway and in this regard the District Emergency Officers, Emergency Officers and Station House Incharge have been posted at Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, D.G.Khan, Sialkot and Murree. The process of recruitment & training of emergency staff for these cities is underway. International Standards have been followed at all levels in establishment of this Service. Rescue 1122 with its strategically located stations, professionally trained rescuers, equipped Emergency Ambulances and rescue vehicles is providing an average response time of seven minutes in a city (Lahore) with over 8 million population which is a remarkable achievement and international record.
Objectives
- Establishment of a system for Emergency preparedness, Response and prevention.
- Development of Safer Communities through proactive approach towards Emergency Management, Community Awareness & Training.
- To have positive socio-economic impact on the society by reducing deaths & disabilities due to injuries, (mostly resulting from Road traffic accidents, the leading cause of deaths) amongst young able bread winners.
Human Resource Development
The training of newly recruited rescuers was a great challenge as there was no trained emergency staff even in emergency departments of teaching hospitals and pre-hospital emergency services like Fire, Rescue & Ambulance Services were virtually non-existent.
The new rescuers were recruited and trained to provide swift response and emergency medical treatment to the helpless victims of emergencies. The theoretical training and simulations were designed by Dr. Rizwan Naseer (Project Director), practiced again and again and internationally monitored by foreign trainers from Asian Disaster Preparedness Center , Austria , Australia and U.S.A on honorary basis for quality assurance. Rescuers were also imparted rescue and rigorous physical training to ensure physical fitness and discipline among the rescuers.
Specialized CPR training was practiced repeatedly on manikins and rescuers were finally sent to emergency departments of teaching hospitals for hands on experience in managing emergency patients and understanding the protocol for smooth delivery of these patients.
In order to ensure sustainable human resource development in the long neglected field of emergency management, Emergency Services Academy has been established in the vacant Government premises and the construction of a purpose built campus is underway. The best available trainers in Pakistan have been recruited for the Academy which is the first training institute of its kind in Pakistan for the training of Emergency Staff for emergency services and hospitals.
Success Story
The Service has been initially established in Lahore as Pilot Project with 6 strategically located rescue stations, 14 Emergency Ambulances and two hundred rigorously trained rescuers. Before launching the test run, following challenging tasks were accomplished within six months but without compromising quality.
• Most appropriate staff of two hundred rescuers was recruited in a record period of seven weeks after scrutiny of over 800 applications.
• The curriculum and training material on principles of first aid and emergency management was developed by Dr. Rizwan Naseer in Urdu.
• A Training of Trainers workshop was arranged with Civil Defence, so that they could train newly recruited rescuers. However looking at their competency level it was decided that training by Civil Defence would result in failure of this Emergency Service.
• Finally Elite Police Training School , Lahore was used for the training where physical fitness and discipline was ensured by the instructors.
• In order to ensure the quality of training, international monitoring was arranged. Trainers from Austria , Australia and U.S.A came to monitor the training on honorary basis.
• Specialized rescue training like rescue from height, management of mass causalities and hazardous material incidents was also imparted to rescuers. Specialized teams were formed and trained to respond to such emergencies.
• Emergency Rescue Stations were constructed after acquiring land at strategic locations to ensure swift and timely response to emergencies.
• Universal Emergency number 1122 (an easy to remember and easy to dial number) was obtained from Pakistan telecommunication Authority.
• Emergency Control & Command Room was established after setting up effective wireless Communication and Emergency logging System.
• Ambulances and Rescue Vehicles of international standards were designed and fabricated indigenously for the first time in Pakistan . This helped in significant financial saving and initiating establishment of a new industry of Ambulance and Rescue vehicle fabrication.
• A Software programme for call recording was developed to monitor quality of the Service and compile Emergency data for research and prevention purposes
• Satellite Tracking System has been established for the monitoring of Emergency Ambulances and Rescue Vehicles.
Evaluated as exemplary Service
The Service has been evaluated by third party before its expansion to other major cities of Punjab . Results of third party evaluation reveal the service to be an exemplary service in terms of training, quality care, response and professionalism.
One of the best service in the history of Pakistan