Masterton toll exchange supervisor Ellen Leach (standing). In the foreground the operator is taking calls including any 111 emergencies.Photo courtesy of Ellen Hodges
TECHNOLOGY CHANGES
Communications Centres technology has moved in leaps and bounds to the modern day situation, where sophisticated systems are used to take calls from the public and dispatch emergency resources.
Ambulance
Ambulance Communications Centres have come a long way since the days when calls for emergency ambulances were handled by individual ambulance stations or ambulance officers and by hospital operators. The calls were all handled manually, details were taken with pen and paper, and the volunteers or operators taking the calls would find an ambulance crew to respond. The people taking the calls and dispatching the ambulances often worked from home...
Police
In the days before computers or fax machines, stations were linked by a teleprinter system. To establish vehicle registration details required a teleprinter message to the vehicle registration office in Wellington and later Palmerston North, where manual card records were stored in banks of filing cabinets. Only in urgent situations was a phone call permitted...
