Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services Department’s director, Mr Antony Kesten, said at the moment the call centre has 60 people answering threatening and nonthreatening calls.
In the last week of July alone, the call centre received 57 092 calls and was able to answer 32 704.
He said the call centre agents called back 1439 callers who had called the call centre but could not get back to 24 388 callers.
“With the staff we currently have, sometimes it is impossible to get to all the calls. Depending on the day, if we have some service interruptions in the city, we get lots of calls. We have to take details from as many callers as possible so that we will pass the correct and full information on to the relevant departments to deal with the problem. On the life threatening calls, sometimes it takes too long to get all the information we need. While we busy with the call, some callers hang up before we can get to them,” said Mr Kesten.
He said that it is not easy to recover all the calls.
“Some people call from phone booths and some hide their caller identity when calling. It is then impossible to get back to them. We have to count them as unrecoverable or lost calls,” he said.
In many cases, the callers are in a state of panic, and this prolongs the call.
“In life threatening instances, people panic and sometimes speak too fast and become inaudible. Sometimes they call before having all the information ready of what is occurring. It may help a lot if the community members give us the entire situation and the help that is needed. The information we get will help us to prioritise better. For instance, a person who had just been stabbed in the chest will get first priority, over person who has stomachaches. Having said that, we once received a call reporting that a women had stomachaches. When we arrived it was discovered that she was giving birth. If we had other calls on that day we would not arrived at the right time. It is important to give the correct information when calling the call centre. We will respond to the call with the correct equipment. That increases the chances of saving a life,” said Mr Kesten.
Callers must remember to give the correct addresses and landmarks when calling.
When the call centre receives a call, it is connected to the relevant department from which the vehicles will then be dispatched to the scene.
He added that the dispatch call centre will communicate with the caller and the crew to ensure the matter has been addressed.
In addition, the department has introduced a twitter account to update residents on non life-threatening issues.
Mr Kesten said that Ekurhuleni sometimes get calls outside Ekurhuleni.
“Most of those calls are from cellular phone companies. People call the cellular phone emergency numbers. In some instances, the agents on the other side make a mistake about which area the caller is from. There some area names that are similar to those within the metro,” said Mr Kesten.
He added that with the new recruits, residents should be able to get through and talk to someone when calling in an emergency or problem. The NEWS has received many calls and letters saying they cannot get through when calling the call centre. Some even ask if the call centre exisits.
