President Nana Akuffo-Addo has officially declared the new code for emergency response activated at a ceremony to commission the 307 ambulances for various constituencies and some selected stations in Accra on Tuesday.
The number, 112, is now the code that citizens will call in cases like accidents, armed robbery and fire outbreak where emergency interventions are needed.
Speaking at the ceremony, the president said the code links the Police, Fire service, National Ambulance Service and other emergency bodies.
He went on to plead with Ghanaians not to abuse the emergency numbers by making prank calls which he says emergency response teams have suffered over the years. According to him, about 90% of the calls received by these emergency response teams were prank call adding that they make true victims suffer in the end.
Explaining how this unitary code works, the Chief Executive Officer for the National Ambulance Service, Prof. Ahmed Nuhu Zakariah in his speech said “Your excellency, please permit me to briefly take the audience through a few of the technical details as are as this number, 112 is concerned. This is how the system is going to operate after the launch; we have the sending a distress call by the user. The user has two options when in need of an ambulance. First option is calling 112 directly on your phone. The second option is calling or sending alert on the Ghana Post GPS app. If you are using the first option, calling 112 directly on your phone will require you to provide information on your location to allow for easy accessibility. Using the Ghana Post GPS app will automatically send your location, that’s your digital address to the ambulance service for a more reliable and easy accessibility.”
When this is done, call is received at the command center and routed to the appropriate quarters; the police, ambulance fire or NADMO depending on the caller’s request. The information received will then be entered on the ‘Ambu-Track’ platform with a digital address or landmark which will be used to get the location of the distress caller.
One can also make a call on the Ghana Post app which will allow the call to be received by the command center and then routed to the appropriate emergency service which is/are needed. With the Ghana Post GPS, the location of the caller is sent directly to the ‘Ambu-Track’ platform which will help for easy location of the victims.
“Alternatively, sir, the caller can access directly by going to the menu, select the ‘Ambulance’ and send a distress message. This goes straight to the Ambulance control center with the caller’s location. The information is dispatched to the ambulance center for response.
By this, the numerous emergency codes in the country have been replaced by the number 112. All one has to do in the case of any emergency is to call 112 and their calls will be routed to the appropriate agency.
