People who call the emergency number 112 get answers far too slowly, according to an audit report published by the Swedish National Audit Office on Thursday.
SOS Alarm has not achieved the goals that exist regarding response times in any year during the last ten years, according to the audit. There has also been an increase in the number of calls with long response times of more than three minutes.
'Significant improvement'
SOS Alarm's CEO Madeleine Raukas welcomes the review. At the same time, she points out that the review looks back in time and does not include the change work that the company began in the autumn of 2022, when she took office.
"Today, our response times have been below the eight seconds for the past three months and annual working hours have improved by 56 percent," she told SVT News.
The annual average time to get a response from an SOS operator is now eleven seconds, according to Raukas.
"There has been a significant improvement during the year.
According to the company, this is due, among other things, to the fact that it has hired over 350 new employees, worked on the work environment and reduced staff turnover by 8.2 percentage points.
Weak governance
The Swedish National Audit Office's audit also shows that the response time has varied depending on where in Sweden you live. Those who call during the weekend have also had to wait longer than those who call Monday-Friday. During June, July, and August, response times are also longer.
In its report, the Swedish NAO also makes the assessment that the Government's governance, as a co-owner and client, has been far too weak. An example of this is that there are no provisions in the agreement with SOS Alarm about what happens when the goals are not met.