Emergency Services Day (October 14, 2009): The Punjab Emergency Service was started as an Emergency Ambulance Service pilot project from Lahore in 2004. Keeping in view the failure of repeated attempts to revitalise and modernise the Civil Defence and Fire Brigades, every one was very skeptical about the project's success.
Therefore, the establishment of this Service was a great challenge since there were no trained emergency personnel or emergency training institute available in Pakistan and even emergency departments of teaching hospitals did not have trained emergency paramedics.
In spite of all odds, the Service was established after successfully completing all the challenges which included recruitment of right staff and training on modern lines; acquisition of appropriate land for Rescue Stations; construction of Rescue Stations; development of international standards ambulances, rescue and fire vehicles in Pakistan; acquisition of toll tree emergency number 1122 and wireless frequencies; development & establishment of vehicles tracking and call monitoring systems for Control Room for effective monitoring.
After third party evaluation which revealed this service to be exemplary in terms of training, quality care, response and professionalism, the Service has been established in all major cities of Punjab which include Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, D.C Khan, Sahiwal, Sialkot, Rahim Yar Khan and Murree.
The Service has so far rescued 394,355 victims of emergencies while maintaining its response time of less than 7 minutes. Today Rescue ll22 is not only a model for other provinces but all SAARC countries. All this exemplary performance has been possible only due to the quality of training imparted to its motivated staff on modem lines and the effective management and monitoring systems.
I sincerely hope that Rescuers will maintain the standards of the Service and gain respect and blessings of the public by maintaining a courteous professional approach. Although an international standard Emergency Service is available for rescue of emergency victims, the alarming increase in the number of avoidable road traffic accidents and fire incidents necessitates the need to work together for prevention of such emergencies to build a safer Pakistan.
The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) was initially started as Emergency & Ambulance Service on 14th October 2004 as a pilot project from Lahore. After the success of this pilot project, Emergency Ambulance Service has been established in 12 major cities of Punjab.
It was for the first time that emergency rescue paramedics were trained for this emergency ambulance service and emergency ambulances of international standards were manufactured in Pakistan. This training and indigenous fabrication of ambulances made this project cost effective and sustainable resulting in success of Rescue 1122. The Service has so far rescued 394355 victims of accidents, emergencies and disasters while maintaining an average response time of less than 7 minutes. Most of the beneficiaries of this Service include young earning bread winners of the society.
Disaster Emergency Response Team has been established in the wake of the earthquake of October 2005. The team received training to deal with the natural and manmade disasters like earthquakes, floods, buildings collapse and explosions. After the success of this team in Lahore, the model has been replicated in 12 major cities to provide the timely emergency services to the citizens.
The Team has been provided with multi-purpose rescue vehicles containing essential rescue equipment like heavy duty hydraulic cutters, spreaders and electronic search and rescue devices and other manual tools. The professional approach of these trained rescuers has proven their worth by imparting timely and effective management of major emergencies and disasters, which include 968 building collapse incidents and 242 explosions.
After the failure of repeated attempts to improve and modernise the existing municipal fire brigades, Rescue 1122 also accepted the challenge of establishing the first modem professionally trained Fire Service in Pakistan.
The first trained modem Fire Service was established on 5th June, 2007 from Lahore which was subsequently replicated in all major cities of Punjab. The modern Rescue 1122 fire service has saved the expected loss of over 13732 millions by timely response and fire fighting on modern lines, from June, 2006 to September 2009.
In order to ensure sustainable human resource development in the long neglected field of emergency and disaster management, it was essential to establish a modern emergency services academy. The Academy has been temporarily established at the former LOS Ichhra premises on Ferozepur Road, Lahore till the establishment of its purpose built campus with emergency simulators essential for training in emergency management. The Academy has so far trained thousands of emergency paramedics not only for Punjab even for other provinces.
-- Visionary Leadership.
-- Effective Planning and Implementation Strategy.
-- Transparent Recruitment.
-- Selection of Right Staff.
-- Professional Training of International Standards First Time in Pakistan.
- -Cost Effective Manufacturing of International Standard Emergency Vehicles in Pakistan.
-- Professional Management.
-- Effective Monitoring System.
"A very impressive visit. The organisation of the Emergency Services of the Punjab, has come such a long way in a short period of time.
(1st March, 2007)
BRIAN P. SWEENEY, Chief Officer/Chief Executive of Strathclyde Fire & Rescue"Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) has done exceptional progress under the leadership of Dr Rizwan Naseer (Director General of Rescue 1122) and this Service very rightly deserves to participate in the national parade of 23rd March." 16th April, 2009)
MUNNO BHAI, Writer/Senior journalist"1122 is the prayer of people of Pakistan because it is the only Service who helps in one's most difficult times." 28th March 2009.
SHAIL WARAICH, Senior TV Anchorperson"Very impressed with the excellent quality instruction and the professionalism of Rescue 1122. Wish continued success to the programme and co-operation with ATA." (16th June, 2006)
ROBERT CLARK, ATA Programme Manager of Pakistan, DS, USA
Over 394355 rescued with 7 minutes response time The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) has responded to over 390109 emergency calls and rescued over 394355 victims of emergencies in five years while maintaining its average record response time of less than 7 minutes.
The total number of emergency victims rescued by Rescue 1122 included 179973 emergency victims in Lahore, 44584 in Faisalabad. 15204 in Rawalpindi, 39900 in Multan, 22140 in Bahawalpur, 17812 in Dera Ghazi Khan, 16320 in Rahim Yar Khan, 12915 in Sahiwal, 3715 in Murree, 11323 in Sialkot, 22030 in Guiranwala and 8439 in Sargodha.
The timely and professional management by Rescue 1122 staff in road traffic accidents, building collapse incidents, hazardous material incidents, fire incidents, medical emergencies and explosions saved victims of spinal injuries from becoming disabled and revived several victims by professionally using the emergency equipment available in emergency ambulances, several victims of cardiac arrest were also saved by timely cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The modern Rescue 1122 fire service has saved the expected loss of over 13732 millions by timely response and fire fighting on modern lines, from June 2006 to September 2009.