Can you get help from the emergency response centre?

There are many misconceptions and outdated notions about emergency response centres that can affect expectations regarding their services. This news article explains what everyone in Finland should know about the emergency number.

Did you order an ambulance for patient transport? Why do ERC operators ask unnecessary questions? Why is the patient asked to get on the phone? If you have had questions like this, you most likely have outdated or incorrect notions about emergency response centre services. Your expectations may be based on incorrect assumptions if your understanding of emergency response centre services is not up to date. 

Emergency response centres are not for ordering help

When someone’s life, health, property or the environment is at risk, you are dealing with an urgent emergency. Urgent emergencies require prehospital medical care, the police, rescue services, emergency social services or several authorities to be dispatched to the scene.

The most important thing that the person in need of help needs to do is recognise whether the emergency is urgent and, if so, call the emergency number 112. The ERC operator who picks up the call will assess the situation, provide instructions and, if necessary, relay the assignment to the right authorities. It is not up to the person making the emergency call to decide what kind of help is needed or how urgent it is. The assessment is always made by the ERC operator.

Emergency calls should only be made about ongoing situations. If you are in doubt, call the emergency number and the ERC operator will tell you what to do.

The most important thing is to answer the questions

The ERC operator must ask questions to assess the situation in order to determine what kind of help is needed, the urgency of the situation and what resources are required to respond to it.

By answering the questions, you can help the ERC operator and the authorities to be dispatched to do their jobs. For example, a car crash can involve an electric car, a lorry, a deer or several people. Depending on the situation, it may be necessary to dispatch either prehospital medical care, rescue services, the police or all of these to the scene, along with special equipment. 

Help can be provided in the form of instructions

If the ERC operator assesses that the situation does not require authorities to be dispatched to the scene, the operator will instead provide the caller with advice on how to deal with the situation themselves or who to contact. For example, the ERC operator may provide instructions on how to stop a nosebleed and, if necessary, instruct the caller to call the Medical Helpline.

Not dispatching authorities to the scene does not mean that the caller’s request for help has been denied. It only means that the situation is not an urgent emergency that needs to be handled by authorities, in which case help is provided in other ways.

The emergency response centre assesses information, not feelings

Emergency calls should not be likened to traditional customer service. Professional ERC operators are required to be firm, and the calls should be seen as similar to interactions with prehospital medical care staff: the aim is to provide help as quickly as possible and often to save lives.

An emergency call should always be made by the person in need of help, if possible, as they are best equipped to provide the ERC operator with all the relevant information. Even if the person is having a seizure, the ERC operator can assess the situation by listening to the person's breathing, for example.

However, children and older people often call their loved ones first, who then proceed to make an emergency call even though they are not at the scene. Emergency calls made through intermediaries may delay the arrival of assistance and make it more difficult to assess the situation.

What is an unnecessary call?

Not all unexpected everyday problems are emergencies. You should not call the emergency number if you just want answers to questions or transport to the emergency room. You should also keep in mind that emergency response centres cannot give you information about another person or instructions on the dosage of medicines.

In the past, ambulances provided patient transport services, but nowadays they are part of prehospital medical care services, which provide treatment at the scene of an incident or during transport. In the event of sudden health problems or if you need help accessing emergency services, you should call the Medical Helpline (116 117) instead.

Who decides whether help is dispatched?

Emergency calls are always assessed and assignments are relayed according to instructions issued by the relevant authorities. The police and rescue, health and social services all have instructions on what resources are to be used for different assignments in different areas, locations and circumstances.

If the conducted risk assessment concludes that the criteria for relaying the assignment are met, the assignment is classified according to its urgency as either an A, B, C or D assignment, with A assignments being the most urgent and D assignments being the least urgent. The most urgent assignments are prioritised, and less urgent ones may have to wait. The emergency response centre cannot affect the number of authorities dispatched to the scene.

Can the emergency response centre not see where you are calling from?

The ERC operator will always determine the location of the incident directly from the person making the emergency call. If the exact location of the incident is not known to the caller, the ERC operator will try to narrow it down by asking further questions. 

The information provided by the caller can be supplemented using various technical positioning methods. However, these positioning methods do not provide information on which home, lane or direction of travel help should be dispatched to.

In the event of an emergency, you can rest assured that you can get all the help that you need from a single number. You do not need to know what kind of help you need from the authorities. 112 is close whenever there is an emergency.