Rescue 1122 services rescued 731,107 victims in 671,686 operations in Punjab during 2016 besides maintaining an average response time of seven minutes.
Presiding over a meeting at Rescue 1122 Headquarters on Monday, Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer reviewed the performance during 2016 and announced that Rescue 1122 would mark 2017 as a year of safety.
He said several programmes for the prevention of emergencies would be launched, including School Safety Program and the Rescue Mohafiz Program through the establishment of Community Emergency Response teams in all union councils of Punjab in 2017. These teams would be trained for disaster response and community-based risk reduction for prevention of emergencies, he added.
The Provincial Monitoring Cell (PMC) briefed the meeting that 238,785 accidents occurred in the province during 2016 compared to 227,390 accidents reported in 2015, indicating an increase of 2.44 percent. Similarly, 14,033 fire incidents were reported in Punjab in 2016 compared to 11,565 cases reported in 2015, indicating an increase of 9.64 percent.
Rescue 1122 managed 327,843 medical emergencies in 2016 whereas the service responded to 295,323 medical cases in 2015, which is an increase of 5.21 percent. Also, the Punjab Emergency Service responded to 21,182 calls related to crime in 2016 as compared to 21,747 in 2015.
A total of 154 explosions were reported in 2016 in Punjab, compared to 173 cases during 2015. Rescue 1122 also responded to 1,097 cases of drowning, 567 building collapses and 68,025 miscellaneous incidents.
The DG said that during the last 12 years, Rescue 1122 had emerged as a successful model of emergency services delivery.
He said that the Motorbike Ambulance Service was being established in nine divisions of the province to ensure prompt response to emergencies during rush hours and through congested areas.