As of this afternoon (Nov 26), calling the 911 number in Phuket failed to work from landlines.
Mobile callers using DTAC received a recorded message, first in Thai, then in English, saying: “Welcome to emergency call. For any urgent assistance, please call 191.”
The call is then terminated. No operator assistance is provided.
Callers using the AIS mobile service received a similar message, which asked callers to “Please press 1” to be redirected to the 191 hotline.
DDPM-Phuket Director Trakul Thotham today (Nov 26) told The Phuket News, “The 911 emergency number is operational in only some areas of Thailand, and I am not even sure it is operational in Phuket.
“For now, calling 911 in Phuket only works on mobile phones. It does not work for landlines, but as the 911 hotline is operated by the police, I will speak with them soon to get it operational and landlines too.” he added.
“I still recommend that people call the existing hotline 191 or the Narenthorn Centre 1669 in case of an emergency,” Mr Trakul urged.
Mr Trakul explained that the 911 debacle arose after many honorary consuls at the meeting with Phuket Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada yesterday (Nov 25) complained about the plethora of emergency numbers in Phuket.
To this, Dr Sirichai, Director of Patong Hospital and the Acting Chief the Phuket Provincial Health Office, suggested using 911. “Which he said was already set up,” said Mr Trakul.
“Governor Chamroen agreed with the idea, so at the meeting he said for us to use 911 for emergency calls. But at that time, no one really knew the current service provided by calling that number.”
It has been suggested that the move to use 911 was to make “due to tourists’ familiarity with the 911 hotline number already, prompting several other countries to implement its use as well.”
However, in China, Thailand’s largest source market for tourists, the central emergency number is 119. In Russia, France, Germany and Sweden it is 112. In the UK it is 999 and in Australia it is 000.
As for neighbouring countries, the emergency number in Laos in the same as Thailand 191, while Vietnam uses Police 113, Fire 114, Ambulance 115.
In Malaysia it is 999 (same as UK), but any mobile calls to 112 (same as most European countries) are automatically redirected to 999.