Emergency Response Efficiency to Improve in Regions

The Ministry of Health is launching a pilot program to centralize emergency calls. Health Minister Arsen Torosyan announced this on his Facebook page.

“Within the framework of the pilot program, all calls from the emergency medical stations in Ararat, Artashat, and Vahakashapat will be directed to the Yerevan emergency station, from where they will be forwarded to the appropriate station without the need for an additional call,” Torosyan wrote.

Currently, when citizens call 103 from regions using mobile or IP phone connections (except for VivaCell subscribers), they connect to the Yerevan emergency station, which does not handle calls from the regions but instead provides the citizen with the phone number of the relevant regional station, forcing them to make a second call to the local station. This prolongs the response time for calls.

“After summarizing the results of the program, it will be expanded nationwide. I would also like to remind that during the past two months, the emergency stations in Yerevan and the regions have been supplemented with additional shifts, significantly improving the response time and quality of service,” the minister noted. “Reforms in emergency services will continue.”

It is also worth mentioning that in June of this year, Arsen Torosyan announced that a budget increase of about 1 billion drams for the “Emergency Services” is anticipated in next year’s budgetary application. According to the minister, this will mean both salary increases and the involvement of additional groups to ensure timely responses to emergencies.