In Frýdlant, the construction of a base for the rescue service has started for 108 million CZK

Frýdlant – In Frýdlant in the Liberec region, work has begun on a base for the emergency service, which has so far been located in rented premises from the city and mainly the garage facilities do not meet their needs. The new base will be built next to the hospital near the busy road I/13 from Frýdlant towards Habartice and further into Poland. The project will cost 108 million crowns, and the Liberec region will finance the construction entirely from its own budget, without subsidies, said Governor Martin Půta (Mayors for the Liberec Region) during today’s groundbreaking ceremony for the construction according to ČTK.

"We had funds for ambulances within the framework of the regional operational program, but we have already utilized them for the construction of the dispatch base in Jablonec nad Nisou. The emergency service initially planned to apply for some cross-border grants, but those were exhausted before we completed the project, so we are building 100% from our budget,” added Půta. The land for the construction was provided by the city of Frýdlant, and the rescuers are expected to move into the new base by the end of next year.

The base in Frýdlant provides rapid assistance for about 25,000 residents of 18 towns and municipalities in the Frýdlant region, which connects to the rest of Liberec only by two roads, one of which goes over the Jizera Mountains to Jablonec. According to Mayor Dan Ramzer (ODS), a functioning emergency service is crucial for the region. "Frýdlant hospital no longer provides emergency care; if something happens to someone here in Frýdlant, they have to get transported by ambulance,” noted the mayor during the construction ceremony.

In Frýdlant, the emergency service has one crew with a doctor and two ambulances with rescuers. "For us, a significant advantage will be the shortened activation time; the building will include garages, which means that, as we say, we can go directly from our room into the vehicle without getting our feet wet, which of course is not possible in the current conditions," stated the director of the regional emergency service, Luděk Kramář. The capacity of the building allows for service strengthening in crisis situations, such as floods. The energy-efficient two-story building will also include a training room.

The emergency service has dispatch bases in 13 towns in the Liberec region; there are two in Liberec – one in the city center and another at the airport, with another being built in Nový Bor within two years. Dispatchers in the operations center received nearly 81,000 calls last year, resulting in 65,000 dispatches. The emergency service employs 360 people, with 32 response teams deployed every day to patients in the region. Last year, the Liberec region contributed 284 million crowns to the emergency service, while additional tens of millions are also annually invested in the modernization or construction of rescuers’ bases.