By Axel Lier
“Emergency call from the Berlin fire brigade, where exactly is the emergency location?” Chief Fire Chief Bülent Cam (45) says this sentence up to 100 times a day. He and his 44 colleagues work in the control center. Over a million emergency calls to 112 were received there last year. On average, the phones ring every 29 seconds.
Cam helps people who need help. But his employer, the fire brigade, has long since become an emergency itself. And the control center is something like the magnifying glass of the authority.
From here, a state of emergency is declared in the emergency services almost every day. In 2020 only 64 times, a year later 178 times. This year the number is over 170 so far.
“Emergency call from the Berlin fire brigade, where exactly is the emergency location?” Chief Fire Chief Bülent Cam (45) takes up to 100 emergency calls per shift Photo: Parvets
For Berliners and tourists, this means: there are times when there are no longer any ambulances available in the capital. There is a lack of staff, young talent, material – and more and more often the motivation. The authority is seething.
An extraordinary staff meeting will therefore be held on Monday. Item 1: “Current situation in the emergency services”. The authorities also want to take a stand.
492,226 missions in the Corona year 2021
Brandoberrat Markus Wiezorek (32) is also one of the bosses. He is the head of the control center. He says: “The population is getting older, the population is individualizing, the population is growing.” He pauses for a moment. “But the fire department is not growing adequately.” The figures also prove this. Despite the pandemic, the military had to deploy 492,226 times last year – more than ever in its 170-year history. Who does that for him?
33 employees of the control center are on duty eleven hours a day, 32 colleagues 13 hours at night. There are few reported fires, mostly medical emergencies. At noon there are longer waiting times for the emergency call, and at noon a state of emergency is often declared. Why?
Brandoberrat Markus Wiezorek (32) is head of the control center. He says: The city is growing – unfortunately the fire brigade is not growing with it Photo: private
“Then there are fewer than 25 free ambulances for the entire city,” explains Wiezorek. 140 ambulances are a basic requirement in Berlin. In addition, there are many “temporary out-of-service periods”, for example when an ambulance has to be cleaned after a transport. The assessment of the situation is also negative: arrival times are getting longer, emergency calls are increasing, demonstrations are causing major detours and operations, and the heat is causing problems for Berliners. When asked if he was only managing the crisis, the Brandoberrat replies: “I’m shaping the crisis.” “SNAP” has also been part of this crisis for years.
“I shape the crisis”
Stefan Poloczek is medical director in the rescue service. He would like to personally convince every colleague of the SNAP computer system Photo: Parvets
It is Sstandardized Nemergency callAquestionprotocol. In 2005 the computer system was introduced in the control center. It asks the employees standardized key questions, on the basis of which emergency services are ultimately dispatched. Unfortunately, also for Gaga missions such as “Need help getting dressed”, slight stomach or back pain or the caller wants a free ride to the rescue center.
“There are people who know exactly what keywords they have to say on the emergency call so that we can send an ambulance,” says Wiezorek, head of the control center. So is SNAP the problem?
“I am convinced that SNAP is right and important,” says Stefan Poloczek, the medical director of the rescue service. The software provides legal certainty against liability claims. “We haven’t had to leave an employee for years because we have SNAP,” he says. The situation in the rescue service is currently unloading on the shoulders of the employees. The control center is “the waiting room of the city”. He suffers from the massive criticism of the system and would like to convince every single colleague of the need for SNAP, says Poloczek.
Not every mission is sent, more than 100 emergency calls are made to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians every day.
The display panel in the control center shows how busy the ambulances are and the average arrival time Photo: Parvets
But the system has weaknesses. If there are no more free ambulances available in a city of 3.7 million inhabitants, who is going to have a heart attack or an accident? “Life-threatening emergencies always have priority,” promises Poloczek.
A few hours later, the control center had to declare a state of emergency in the emergency services again. midday and evening.
