New Longer Emergency Number To Reduce Calls For Ambulances

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Tokyo to offer new emergency number to ease demand on ambulances
What do you do when you find yourself doubled over with painful stomach cramps but are unsure if a 119 emergency call is in order? The Tokyo Fire Department has the solution. It will start a new emergency phone service in May for people in need of expert advice on the best course of action in such medical cases. By dialing #7119, callers will be put in contact with medical experts who can advise them on whether an ambulance or other measures are needed...Callers will also be advised on whether they should take ailing family members to hospital immediately or wait until morning. The department hopes the new service will curb ambulance calls so that emergency care will be available to those most in need...more...

[IkemenTommy]

US already has this by dialing 411. Maybe Japan can adopt 114 also?

I've heard that there are scandalous people who subsitute the ambulance as a free taxi service to the hospital. That is just plain fucked.

[maraboutslim]

411 is the number you call to get phone numbers. they don't hand out advice abuot whether you should take gramps to the hospital by ambulance immediately or wait until the morning. hell, no one in the usa would offer such advice anyway because the first time they said wait till morning and gramps croaked, the lawsuits would be flying.

[IkemenTommy]

Eh.. I meant 311, but kept thinking of the band instead at the time of writing.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Frivolous calls clog emergency lines

Prefectural police nationwide are being plagued by emergency calls that involve no real emergency, according to a recent survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun. In response to the survey, 37 prefectural police headquarters provided examples of such frivolous or unnecessary calls, such as one from a person asking police to drive the caller home as it had started raining. According to the National Police Agency, while the number of genuine emergency calls has been decreasing, frivolous calls increased to about 950,000 cases in 2007. Police said such calls tie up their phone lines and hamper operations. Ten prefectural police forces did not reply to the survey. The other 37 prefectural police forces confirmed receiving frivolous calls, including calls to emergency lines by people wishing to make complaints or seek advice.

In one such case, a person called police in Yamaguchi Prefecture to ask them to get someone's phone number. In Kyushu, a person called to complain they were unable to turn on their new mobile phone. In Saitama Prefecture, a caller asked police to bring toilet paper as they were stuck in a public toilet without any paper. And in Shiga Prefecture, a person called to ask whether the police could help them get a job. According to the NPA, the number of real emergency calls--excluding prank and frivolous calls--fell to 8.98 million last year from a peak of 9.53 million in 2004. Frivolous calls are the only type that has been increasing, rising from 880,000 in 2004 to 950,000 in 2007.

A college student from Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, was murdered in 1999 after police failed to investigate her call reporting that she was being stalked. As a result, police forces across the country adopted a policy of taking all calls seriously. "We are taking the time to listen to people because even if we think a call is unnecessary, we cannot be certain that it has no connection to an incident," a spokesman from one police headquarters said. But the increasing incidence of thoughtless calls has in some cases delayed police officers' arrival at incident or accident scenes. The frivolous calls also contribute to a situation in which NPA emergency phone lines are sometimes overloaded with calls. "People should use their common sense when deciding whether to dial 110 to make an emergency call," an NPA spokesman said.

Eiichi Tamiya, a former head of the first investigation section of the Metropolitan Police Department who had responsibility for emergency call operations, said: "Police are trying hard to cope with people's problems as fast as they can. They should flatly decline to respond to unreasonable requests. If they don't, they won't be able to respond swiftly to serious incidents and accidents." "With citizens paying taxes and having an increased awareness of their rights, more people are of the view that they're entitled to get service from public servants, psychiatrist Rika Kayama said.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Police receiving more nonurgent calls

From calls for help getting rid of a cockroach to a request opening a window shutter, police headquarters across the nation received almost a million nonurgent calls between January and November last year. The National Police Agency is concerned such calls could tie up operators and delay the response to real emergencies and accidents. The agency wants people to call "#9110" for nonurgent inquiries. Police headquarters across the nation received 8,254,327 emergency calls between January and November last year, 109,235 more than the same period the year before, according to the agency.

Police received 968,413 inquiries regarding "requests and complaints," an increase of 76,992 over the previous year and 11.7 percent of the total. None of these calls required an urgent response. Among calls received by Tokyo police were requests for help "controlling an unruly 6-year-old," "opening a window shutter," and a plea to "buy a wet compress and bring it to me because my leg hurts." Police received 2,401,018 calls regarding vehicle accidents and traffic matters, the highest number. Calls from mobile phones reached 5,297,935, up 132,140 from the previous year and accounting for a record 64.2 percent of the total.

[Samurai_Jerk]

There are a lot of mentally ill people in this country.

[Mike Oxlong]

There's some strong competition overseas...

[yt]00iTNcOWjBo[/yt]

[Dragonette]

There are a lot of mentally ill people in this country.

"unable to turn on their new mobile phone"
"controlling an unruly 6-year-old"
"help getting rid of a cockroach"
"request opening a window shutter"

While I don't disagree with SJ's comment at all, I think the childish "Daddy must make it all better" J-attitude has a lot to do with this situation. Dumb as those YouTube USA 911 calls are, none come up to the sheer nerve of the examples above.

Yeah, J-cops need to make some serious improvements, but that shouldn't include making sure some A-hole (pun intended) has an adequate supply of public toilet paper.

Maybe a stern warning with threat of fine would help these people grow up.