Hato Hone St John believes a new emergency services technology to help locate people faster will mean the difference between life and death.
The new technology, the Device Location Information (DLI) service, can be used by emergency services to locate the mobile phone of a person who has not called 111 themselves but there are grave fears for their health or safety.
The DLI capability was announced on Friday by Minister of Police Mark Mitchell.
Peter Bradley, chief executive of Hato Hone St John, said they welcomed the new emergency services resource.
“This is a vital tool that will help emergency services respond faster when every second counts. The ability to quickly locate a person whose life or health is at serious risk but unable to call for help can mean the difference between life and death,” Bradley said.
“Crucially, this new capability highlights the value of collaboration between emergency service agencies. By working together and leveraging shared technology, we can deliver a faster, more accurate medical response to people when they need it, wherever they may be.”
The DLI service was part of a broader programme of work being led by Next Generation Critical Communications (NGCC) to modernise the critical communications infrastructure and services used by the emergency services.
NGCC is also delivering the Public Safety Network cellular services and a new Land Mobile Radio network for Police, Fire and Emergency NZ, Wellington Free Ambulance, and Hato Hone St John.
Bradley said the service will benefit time-critical situations such as where a call for help is cut short before location details can be shared.
“When a call drops, or when a person can’t speak but is in clear need of help, this technology ensures we’re not wasting valuable time trying to manually determine where they might be. It allows us to respond faster when a person’s life or health is at serious risk,” he said.
Mitchell echoed the words of Hato Hone St John.
“When every second counts, having access to real time digital technology is a game changer for our emergency services, and for public safety,” Mitchell said.
He said it will be a very useful tool for search and rescue operations, for example when someone is reported missing in the bush.
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“Provided they’re carrying a mobile device that’s switched on and connected to a cellular network, emergency services can use the DLI service to get immediate access to information about the area they are in and send help,” he said.
“Our emergency services do a great job, handling over two million calls for help each year. This new capability will help them find people more quickly when speed is of the essence.”
The Government said they’ve ensured this tool is in line with the Telecommunications Information Privacy Code, with processes in place to ensure this new tool is used appropriately and transparently. They said this includes a two-step process to authorise use of the DLI service and transparently reporting on when and why it has been used.
Associate Minister of Health Casey Costello said the technology’s capability is an improvement on the current process which requires manual requests to be made to mobile network operators and relies on them having people on call 24/7 to assist.
“This service can also help if a call is transferred to an emergency service from another operator. For example, if someone on the phone to Healthline falls unconscious and the call drops, then the Device Location Information service can locate the mobile device they were calling from and send this information to ambulance teams,” Costello said.
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