Enhanced 999 to Help Paramedics Instantly Detect Caller’s Location
A legal expert recently warned businesses to upgrade their systems and ensure that emergency services responding to calls from their staff are given adequate information to allow them to reach the exact location quickly. Failing this, these businesses will be open to prosecution.
On the heels of this advice, a Scottish company released a new product into the market- the Enhanced 999. It is a calling solution, which gets call details from each caller, and redirects the call with a reference number attached, pinpointing the exact location of the caller. This ensures a quick response from paramedics, who are at present hindered by the vague information provided by the system in use.
Emergency calls currently do not provide the site from which the worker is calling automatically. Often, they only provide a common number, which, in the case of a multi-site organisation makes the work of the paramedics even more difficult.
A specialist health and safety lawyer, Claire Anderson talked to The Scotsman about this. She said that the employers are responsible for the safety of their staff and should be able to provide access to emergency services in case of a workplace accident. She also added that once the Enhanced 999 calling solution is available in the market, companies would be legally required to use the technology. If the Health and Safety Executive finds that companies have been lax in securing the safety of their staff, they may serve notice and take legal action.
All staff and management must be fully aware of and comply with health and safety regulations as laid down by law. Click here for more information on the range of iosh training available from the experts at Workplace Law Training.
Companies in America are now using similar systems to ensure workplace safety and to avoid the threat of prosecution. In some states, this is a legal requirement, while in a few, failure to supply information on the precise site of accident may even result in the firm being shut down.