A new challenge was raised by President Sebastián Piñera this morning, through a pilot plan: that emergencies can be resolved by calling a single, integrated and coordinated number, so that police officers, firefighters and the Health Care Service of Emergency (SAMU).
“It is not just about the single number, but behind it there must be integration and coordination of services. What we are doing today is to receive a complete report that Paz Ciudadana has carried out and that complements the work done by these three institutions. We want to give the final push so that in Chile we have a single emergency response system that is capable of meeting the needs of health, fires and security”, said the president.
The project intends that the Ministry of the Interior be the body that will regulate and coordinate between the aforementioned institutions to ensure proper functioning, promoting agreements and defining the role of each one.
This would be agreed by means of a work table where the undersecretary of the Interior, representatives of the undersecretary of Assistance Networks will participate; of the Logistics Directorate of Carabineros; of the National Board of Firefighters and the Fundación Paz Ciudadana.
The simile of this plan is 911, the well-known emergency telephone number used in the United States.
The first stage would be focused on receiving calls, so that those who receive them can categorize, prioritize and derive emergencies. This entails the collection of information from the institutions in charge of responding to emergencies, making a real-time record of these, together with the management of human resources and logistical support for the provision of services, which at the same time are reviewed. standards of care.
By way of example, there is the case of Carabineros: 72% of the calls received do not require a procedure, which, according to a study by the Paz Ciudadana foundation, are inefficient in their service platforms, also generating the same reduction in technological resources and or a gap between other more serious emergencies and the help service.
