LAHORE: The Punjab Emergency Services (Rescue 1122) rescued over 1,748,255 emergency victims while responding to 1,536,638 emergencies during the year 2022, while maintaining its average response time of seven minutes and standard in all districts of Punjab.
The data showed 21.7 percent increase in the number of emergencies as compared to previous year 2021.
The Secretary of the service held annual Performance-2022 review at Emergency Services Headquarters, which was attended by all Head of Wings of Emergency Services Headquarters & Academy. The Secretary was briefed about all Punjab rescue operations i.e. road traffic crashes, medical, fire, Structural collapse, crime, drowning, fall from height/slip, snake emergencies, delivery and others miscellaneous emergencies.
The Provincial Monitoring Cell briefed the Secretary Emergency Services that 369,564 Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) took place across the Punjab in 2022, whereas 364,030 RTCs were reported in 2021 with an increase of 1.5%. Similarly, 26,477 fire incidents were reported in all 36 districts of Punjab in 2022 whereas 20,810 cases of fires were reported in 2021 with increase of 27 percent. Rescue 1122 managed 940591 medical emergencies in 2022, whereas the Service responded to 715,191 medical emergencies in 2021 with increase of 31.5 percent.
Furthermore, the Punjab Emergency Service responded to 37,036 crime emergencies in 2022, as compared to 34,314 in 2021 with increase of 8 percent cases. The Service also responded to 1324 cases of drowning, 36,545 falls from height/slip, 972 Structural collapses, 3491 Snake Search Emergencies, 1105 Scorpion Bite, 1056 Snake Bite and 26567 miscellaneous incidents.
It was also revealed that during last year 174,123 victims were provided Patients Transfer Services free of cost from primary healthcare facility to specialized advance healthcare facility. Besides that Motorbike Rescue Service responded 346981 emergencies with average response time of 4 minutes in all districts of Punjab in 2022.
While speaking the occasion, Dr. Rizwan Naseer said that during the last 18 years, Rescue Service has emerged as a successful model of emergency services delivery for South Asian countries. He appreciated the District Emergency Officers for maintaining the standards of Emergency Services in all Districts of Punjab and successful flood rescue operations in South Punjab in 2022 by rescuing over 80,000 flood affectees and provision of transportation to over 125,000 people to safe areas. He directed all DEOs to ensure community building safety regulations in 50 feet and above buildings, establish Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) at village level and promote road safety to develop safer communities in Punjab.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023