LAHORE: The Secretary Emergency Services Dr. Rizwan Naseer said that Rescue 1122 rescued over 1748255 emergency victims while responding to 1536638 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.
He was presiding over an Annual Performance-2022 review meeting, which was held at Emergency Services Headquarters here on Saturday. The meeting 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.
At this occasion, Provincial Monitoring Cell briefed Secretary Emergency Services that 369564 Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) took place across the Punjab in 2022, whereas 364030 RTCs were reported in 2021 with an increase of 1.5%. Similarly, 26477 fire incidents were reported in all 36 districts of Punjab in 2022 whereas 20810 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 715191 medical emergencies in 2021 with increase of 31.5 percent. Furthermore, the Punjab Emergency Service responded to 37036 crime emergencies in 2022, as compared to 34314 in 2021 with increase of 8 percent cases. The Service also responded to 1324 cases of drowning, 36545 fall from height/slip, 972 Structural collapses, 3491 Snake Search Emergencies, 1105 Scorpion Bite, 1056 Snake Bite and 26567 miscellaneous incidents.
Provincial Monitoring Officer further briefed that during last year 174123 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 said that the team of Emergency Services Academy has become the first United Nations INSARAG classified team in South Asia.
Dr. Rizwan 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 1,25,000 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.
