Debated in Parliament on 22 Feb 2023.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) for the past five years, how many emergency response cases have been reported or attended to by members of the public through the myResponder App, broken down to the most common types of incidents; and (b) what are the plans to increase the subscribers to the App and build capability for the public’s emergency response especially for those incidents commonly reported.
The myResponder app allows members of the public to register as Community First Responders (CFRs), and alerts them to cardiac arrest cases or minor fires, within 400 metres of their location. This enables these cases to be attended to quickly by CFRs, thereby improving cardiac arrest survival rates as well as allowing minor fires to be extinguished within the first few critical minutes.
Between 2018 and 2022, CFRs attended to 7,670 cases through the app. Out of the 7,670 cases, 4,525 were cardiac arrest cases, and 3,145 were minor fire cases.
The app also has a 995 emergency call widget which allows users to report emergency cases. However, all calls made via the 995 widget in the app will be received as normal 995 calls at the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Operations Centre. SCDF does not distinguish whether the calls were made from the app, or via the 995 emergency hotline.
To increase subscribers to the app and grow the pool of CFRs, SCDF leverages various community touchpoints. These include events such as the Fire Station Open Houses and Community Resilience Days organised by SCDF, programmes under the SGSecure movement, as well as events jointly organised with the Community Emergency and Engagement Committees in the residential heartlands. At these events, the public can learn skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), use of the Automated External Defibrillator (AED), firefighting, and first aid. The public can also sign up for the SCDF's Community Emergency Preparedness Programme conducted at the four SCDF Division headquarters. SCDF will encourage participants in these events and programmes to download the app and register as a CFR.
To further build capability for the public's emergency response, SCDF has been working with partners to increase the availability of AEDs and fire extinguishers in the community. Under the Save-A-Life initiative, SCDF has to date installed over 5,100 AEDs at the lift lobbies of HDB flats and private condominiums. SCDF will continue to work with the People's Association and NParks to expand this to even more condominiums, parks, and more public and private establishments. By end 2025, SCDF's target is to have one AED within a 250-metre reach in urban areas. For fire extinguishers, over the next five years, SCDF will work with HDB, Town Councils and Temasek Foundation to install one fire extinguisher at the lift lobby for every two HDB blocks.
SCDF has also implemented the AED-on-Wheels Programme to tap on vehicle fleets of external organisations, and build a roving network of CFRs who are both trained in CPR-AED procedures and equipped with an AED to respond to an emergency. Since the programme's launch in 2015, SCDF has equipped 260 vehicles from four organisations – Strides, Grab, Comfort Delgro, and NinjaVan – with AEDs. We separately have 50 CFRs who are carrying AEDs on their own vehicles. This year, SingPost will be joining the AED-on-Wheels Programme, which will add another 25 vehicles to the network.
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