Emergency control room calls keep on rising

JESCC installed a system which recorded calls in 2017. The service took 17,800 in its first year, whereas in 2023 it took 32,800.

Calls are counted based on the creation of a call log. They are not necessarily all 999 calls.

‘In the first quarter of this year, there were 3,543 logged police incidents, 1,730 ambulance logged incidents and 412 for fire, so in total there were 5,685 logged calls,’ said centre manager Karl Zierlinger.

‘I wouldn’t say there has been a massive increase in calls recently, but we are definitely busier more consistently.’

There is a minimum of five people on shift at any one time, but each watch contains seven in total, which provides resilience for leave and sickness and time for training.

There are six 999 lines, and the centre also takes non-emergency calls.

‘One thing I didn’t realise is that dropped 999 calls are really high,' said Mr Zierlinger.

‘Either they have hung up, or it’s a pocket dial, which is quite common. But we still log those and try to trace the call and make sure the caller is OK.

‘We can’t assume that it’s just a pocket dial and that they are all OK. Sometimes they may genuinely be where people have had the phone knocked out of their hands, or they are in a domestic violence situation where they can’t speak.’

Prior to the creation of JESCC, 999 calls went directly to the operator and such calls would have been filtered out.

In a recent 24-hour period, during which St John Emergency Ambulance said it had been particularly busy, JESCC logged 42 ambulance calls, 70 police incidents, nine for the fire service and 20 dropped 999 calls. On average it takes about 60 calls a day.

‘No service is busier than others,’ said Mr Zierlinger, a retired police inspector. ‘The police have the most logged calls, but a lot of police calls are not time-critical, whereas medical incidents are generally time-critical and 999 calls.

‘I think Guernsey gets a really good service from the blue light services. We are really lucky and I think people get a cracking service.

‘It is far more co-ordinated than it ever was and it definitely helps to work together with other agencies and make response times better.’