This week, we heard MD of Foothills County Reeve Suzanne Oel say the target of *processing* a call within 90 seconds is only being met about six per cent of the time. Foothills has been calling for a return to their own in-house service for many years.
Except this is not "it". Firefighters are going to be the first responder the vast majority of times. As we have heard, what needs to happen is an AHS dispatcher gets the call, has to transfer back to local dispatch, and then the fire crews can get info.
Callers will also notice a change when they get put on hold to be transferred between a provincial dispatcher and a local dispatcher depending on the nature of a call. This can take much more time, as detailed by city administration this week.
We still haven't been able to see the evidence that concretely backs up this claim. By all accounts the city system works extremely well, and I believe anyone who has called 911 in Calgary can attest to that. What is broken with the local system?
It seemed like Fire Chief Dongworth, who has served in the CFD since I was born, knows best here. A great example was last year's Calgary Tower elevator emergency, where local dispatchers could easily communicate with each other in the same room without transferring calls.
Lastly, Richard Hinse with Community Standards detailed one major incident where having dispatchers in different rooms didn't work. September 11th, 2001. "The police service knew the towers were falling. They couldn't get that information over to the fire dispatch."
Yes, these are extreme and rare examples. But if there's one thing I learned from the firefighters I have known best -- my father and brother -- it is to prepare for the worst.
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