- Conference
- 2009 Retired Members' Conference
- Date
- 15 May 2009
- Decision
- Carried
Conference is aware of the anxiety suffered when a relative or loved one is caught up in an emergency situation particularly the elderly. Anything that can be done to reduce the anxiety and to aid more effective communications has got to be a good thing.
In July 2007 Vodafone Netherlands started a national awareness campaign to encourage their customers to enter the In Case of Emergency (ICE) contacts into their mobile phone. In the United Kingdom this campaign has also been launched by Bob Brotchie, a Cambridge-based paramedic, and has so far gained support from the Welsh Ambulance Service and the Welsh Assembly Government.
Emergency services such as the fire, ambulance, police, hospital staff and first aiders can call an ICE contact when necessary, knowing that they are speaking to the right person in case of an emergency.
Entering ICE numbers in your mobile phone increases the efficiency level of the emergency services and can save precious time and lives.
Therefore Conference instructs the National Retired Members’ Committee and calls upon the National Executive Council to liaise with the National Pensioners’ Convention and all appropriate organisations to support this campaign by:
i.Producing information leaflet for the elderly to making them aware of the importance of the ICE campaign;
ii.To make the elderly aware of how to activate ICE on their mobile phone and alternative ways of putting numbers on their phone;
iii.Asking emergency services and the mobile phone companies to promote this idea to the elderly.