“Without us, they cannot call for help”

114, a free number accessible 24 hours a day, acts as an intermediary between emergency services and deaf or hard of hearing people. Franceinfo takes you inside this little-known telephone platform, based in the Grenoble hospital.

Have you ever asked yourself this question: when you are deaf or hard of hearing, how do you call the fire brigade and warn your neighbor that there is a fire? Or how do you call emergency services when a friend is unwell or you yourself are injured? It is impossible to communicate by telephone with emergency services such as 15, 17 or 18. For this, there is 114, a free number accessible 24/7 to act as an intermediary with emergency services.

A public service known only to 6% of French people, which nevertheless receives up to 80 calls per day. These are obviously not traditional phone calls but text messages, messages on the application’s chat or even video calls with agents who respond in sign language. “There, we have a hearing-impaired man who cannot make an appointment with a doctor today. So he calls us so that we can contact Samu for him.”explains Antonin Colas, one of the regulatory agents.

“We ask him where he is, his temperature because he talks about a fever. We do emergency operator work so that we give all the necessary information to the emergency services.”

Antonin Colas, regulatory agent of 114

at franceinfo

Christelle, her colleague, immediately calls the 15th. The Samu also provides SAS, access to care service, to guide this patient: “I am calling you about a gentleman in the town of Montluçon, he needs a medical consultation because he has been suffering from bronchitis since Sunday evening and he cannot treat it.”

Call for help as a victim or witness

Doctor Véronique Equy is responsible for the national 114 telephone platform, based on the premises of the Grenoble hospital. She would like to make this public and free service more widely known, because it can be useful in many situations. “Not very long ago, we were contacted by a couple of deaf people who were expecting a baby. The birth happened faster than expected, so it was a regulatory agent from 114 who guided them. He gave them the instructions to follow and kept them on video, while one of his colleagues sent paramedics”she says. “We feel useful for a certain category of the population who, without us, do not have access to the emergency call as a victim but also as a witness!”

“For example, if a deaf person sees someone feeling unwell in the street, why as a citizen could I not notify emergency services? There, thanks to 114, the deaf person can raise the alarm like a hearing person.”

Doctor Véronique Equy, head of 114

at franceinfo

114 is aimed at people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and also aphasic, that is to say those who have had a stroke and who have difficulty expressing themselves. In total, the number concerns 7 million French people.