T

he city administration is preparing a single integrated emergency call center and has tasked the Health Agency with devising a master plan to launch the program.

Dien Emmawati, head of the city’s Health Agency, said Monday that the administration would hold a two-day seminar by the end of this month to discuss an appropriate system that could integrate various institutions to provide services during emergency situations.

The program is expected to integrate the services of the Jakarta Health Agency, the Jakarta Police, the Jakarta Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), the City Fire Department and the Jakarta Public Order Agency. Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo has said that the city was planning to have its own 911, the emergency phone number used in the US and Canada.

Dien said she would commence the project at her agency by integrating 17 hospitals that were under the auspices of the Health Ministry in the city. “If the integration works well, we will expand the system to cover all 88 hospitals throughout Jakarta,” she said, adding that the infrastructure and human resources would be well prepared, particularly in implementing procedures to respond to emergency calls.

“The call center will become a crisis center where all agencies will be integrated with an operational system pursuant to a gubernatorial regulation,” Dien said, adding that the actual number to dial would be decided during the seminar.

Jakarta administration spokesman Cucu Ahmad Kurnia said the emergency call number would be launched by the end of 2012.

Meanwhile, most Jakartans welcomed the plan of providing a single emergency call center, despite a degree of pessimism and criticism from some. National Ombudsman Commission member, Muhammad Choirul Anwar, suggested that the Jakarta administration should make the “911” a solution center, not merely a complaints center.

“People have high expectations of call centers but existing centers have no clear mechanisms for responding to complaints,” said Choirul, explaining that people could not discover whether their complaints had been addressed or not.

He said the planned call center needed a clear regulation to determine its working mechanism and decision-making among relevant agencies so that they could respond quickly. “Don’t let this project end up as nothing more than some parties showing off,” Choirul said.

Based on ombudsman’s data, in 2011 the commission received 62 complaints related to the Jakarta administration’s poor public services. They comprised protracted delays in processes, authority abuses, unfair treatment, procedural violations and incompetence.

Edo Rusyanto, a 42-year-old businessman who had mixed experiences with service calls provided by Jakarta’s agencies, said the planned system would not be effective at the beginning due to the lack of information about the plan among the city’s residents. “The administration should pay more attention to human resource development, the dissemination of information and mechanisms to ensure quick responses, so that the system can be implemented well,” said Edo, who always stores emergency phone numbers in his cell phone.

According to Edo, his experiences proved that he could not rely on some service centers. “I once dialled the state electricity company’s service-center number, 123, and I had to wait for an hour to get an answer about a blackout in my neighborhood,” he said.

Edo suggested the administration should first solve the sectoral egoism among its agencies. “When I called the police to ask for help during a fire, the officer said I should contact the fire department; he didn’t want to follow up on it,” he said.

Kristina Natalia, 25, a legal staffer in a private company, said she was pessimistic about the project. “It is a good idea but I’m not sure it will run well,” she said. (cor)