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I am a Practitioner of 'The 7e Way of Leaders' where a Leader will Envision, Enable (ASK for TOP D), Empower, Execute, Energize, and Evolve grounded on ETHICS!

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Daily Lessons from Life 03 May 2017 - Abuse of 995 Emergency Services

"By CNA

SINGAPORE: Calls made to the Singapore Civil Defence Force’s (SCDF) 995 emergency hotline will be assessed based on their severity and be allocated resources accordingly, under a new frontline response framework launched on Wednesday (May 3).

Speaking at the annual SCDF Workplan Seminar, Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said the new framework will help meet the rising number of calls made to the emergency hotline.

“Since 2000, the number of 995 calls has increased by about 6 per cent annually. In 2016, SCDF handled close to 180,000 EMS (emergency medical services) calls – 500 calls every single day. SCDF has been increasing EMS resources, but increasing resources alone to meet that demand is not a sustainable approach," he said.

Last year, SCDF received almost 19,000 calls – about 10 per cent of all 995 calls – over false alarms and non-emergencies such as constipation and chronic cough.

Under the new EMS Tiered-Response Framework, to be rolled out progressively over the next few years, calls will be classified based on the severity of the patients’ medical conditions. More severe cases will be prioritised over less serious cases in terms of the scale of SCDF resources and speed of response."

Constipation n chronic cough!! Small wonder the SCDF has to resort to the new tactic of handling 995 calls given the limited resources n the possibilities of a dramatic terrorists attack where such scarce resources must be given to the most urgent life saving task!!

It used to be the abuse of A&E wards of hospitals n now this 995 call!!

Guess we r not there yet as a high quality citizen of the world richest per capita nation. Indeed, wealth does not necessarily means progress n being civilized!

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