The largest 112 control room in the country will open next Tuesday in Apeldoorn. An exciting day, says the head of the control room, Niels Nijman. The emergency number must be available at all times during the move.
“Before the operation, we have a military-precision script to ensure that no 112 call falls between the cracks,” Nijman told Omroep Gelderland.
Fifty systems must be transferred individually to the new control room. “Every five minutes between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. are in the script. And in the meantime we must remain reachable for people in need and our aid workers on the street.”
450 dispatchers will work in the new control room, which is three tennis courts in size. More than two thousand 112 calls are received every day.
Vulnerable
Three control rooms in Apeldoorn, Arnhem and Hengelo will close their doors on Tuesday and will be merged at the new location. Most dispatchers move with them to the new location.
The control rooms have to merge because the police and ambulance in particular are struggling with staff shortages. “Keeping three control rooms up and running costs more people than one control room,” says Nijman. “I’m not saying we need a lot less people now that we work in one place. But it makes a difference.”
The merger has been in preparation for more than ten years. According to Nijman, the chance that something goes wrong and someone from the eastern Netherlands cannot reach 112 on Tuesday is nil. “It all concerns ICT, so it is vulnerable. But we are working on this with a hundred ICT people. We have boarded everything up so that we think it is all going well.”
- Control room 112 Zeeland ‘flooded with reports’ due to flooding
- Power outage at 112 emergency center in Arnhem-Nijmegen region
- App should make emergency number 112 more accessible for stutterers
