Local knowledge saves lives !

The relentless pressure to reduce the cost of services often squeezes out the contribution local knowledge can play in saving lives.   The Wollongong fire emergency centre that used to despatch fire crews to blazes is now shut and calls are handled by despatchers in either Sydney or Newcastle.

When cases are handled by a person far removed from the local scene and lacking geographical knowledge, mistakes can occur.   It is reported that fire crews have been ordered to attend fires up to eight hundred miles from where their station is located.   Distance might look perfectly reasonable to someone looking at a map, but that is the type of mistake that involves lost time - and lost time can equate into lost lives.

When someone picks up the phone to send for a fire crew or to call an ambulance, they are often in a state of panic.  Sometimes it is a small child on the end of that line.  Sometimes it is someone who is emotionally distressed and incapable of giving rational directions.    It helps if the person trying to unscramble that distorted information has local knowledge and can ask questions that clarify precisely where this help is needed.

When it comes to reducing the cost of services,  a theoretical approach is not always in the best interests of safety.    Sooner or later the principle of having this state's emergency services controlled from a central point  can lead to the type of thinking that has sent data processing overseas.    When cost is the only criteria, then moving those services to a call centre in a low wages country makes a lot of sense - even if it delivers life or death decisions to people who lack even a basic knowledge of the local scene.

There is no doubt that this centralised despatch system will work well - most of the time.   The present  000 number for police - fire - ambulance removes the need to try and find individual numbers for each of the services, but that still works best if the 000 controller connects the caller with a local call room for each service.

There is no substitute for local knowledge when lives are at stake !