Faster 999 response times in Dorset after services link up

10:00am Sunday 14th October 2012 in News

Emergency calls across Dorset will be answered quicker in busy times as the county’s fire control room links up with two others in the south west, it is claimed.

Dorset Fire and Rescue Service is teaming up with the Wiltshire and Devon and Somerset services so that when one control room is flooded with calls, they will automatically be re-directed to another.

The move will cut costs and ensure 999 calls are answered as quickly as possible.

The new Public Services Network compliant Wide Area Network in conjunction with Virgin Media will be rolled out in the next few months It will give 4,860 staff and 188 fire stations access to quick data transfer and digital telephone services.

The new network will also be linked with Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service to provide more connectivity.

Comments(3)

gerbil112 says...
11:39am Sun 14 Oct 12

Hmmm, I wonder exactly when the Fire Service was last ”flooded" with calls? On a daily basis (barring natural elements like flooding, or major road accidents with multiple calls), their workload is hardly what I would call busy. On the other hand, the Ambulance Service, who answer many hundreds of calls a day, have already had this system in place for many years.
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The interesting comment in the article is about saving money. Does this imply that the number of call-takers at each Control Centre will be reduced, now that excess calls will be diverted to other centres?
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At the end of the day, the emergency calls will still be sent to the same Fire Crews, at the same Fire Stations, no matter who answers the calls.

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snowleopard says...
12:00pm Sun 14 Oct 12

Back door method of making one control room for south west at Taunton that was mooted some time back?

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WhatThe... says...
4:08pm Sun 14 Oct 12

To be fair, they may not be busy most of the time, But just one single incident can generate a large number of calls to the Control room all at the same time.
Thats when they need the overload facility to make sure all the emergency calls get a response as soon as possible.

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