Brilliant news for people who live in Kalkan, as well as the thousands of visitors that come here every year.

With effect from today, Friday 28th October, Kalkan will have its very own emergency ambulance, with fully trained paramedics, on standby 24 hours a day.

KTLN went to see the crew, at their new offices at Kalkan bus station.

Highly trained
The first thing that strikes you is how young these people are - from late teens to mid twenties.  But don't let their youthful appearance fool you; these young men and women have received excellent training, and they know what they are doing. 

They also have the latest life saving equipment in their vehicle, including oxygen and a defibrillator.

Below: Some of the paramedics who will be working in Kalkan.  Trained in Antalya, they come from all over Turkey.

When you call 112 from Kalkan, your call goes to a central switchboard in Antalya.  If you need an ambulance, your call will be routed to this new team in Kalkan. 

There are 12 members of staff in total, who work on a rota basis.  At any one time there will always be a minimum of three people on duty - a driver plus two people to stay with the patient.

At KTLN, we think this is a significant step in improving medical emergency services in and around Kalkan.  This new local ambulance could literally be the difference between life and death.  Residents and visitors should feel that bit more comfortable, knowing that this new service is on their doorstep.

Please note that you should not just turn up at the ambulance station.  You need to call 112.

Below: The new 112 office in Kalkan, at the bus station.

History of 112 in Turkey
For information, in Turkey, the 112 emergency number was introduced in 1993, for the ambulance service only.  The other emergency services have different numbers (115 for police; 110 for the fire service; 156 for the Jandarma; 158 for the coastguard and 177 for forest fires). 

In Kalkan you only need one emergency number
However, you may be interested to know that here in Antalya province, (which of course includes Kaş and Kalkan), and also in Isparta province, since 2009, the 112 number has been used as a central switchboard, for all emergency services.  This works just like the 999 service in the UK.  So 112 is the only number you need to know.

Whilst you don't really need to remember any other numbers, in these two provinces, in the remaining 79 provinces of Turkey, you may do.  The scheme was to be rolled out to other provinces, but we are not sure exactly how far the roll out has gone.

Kalkan Turkish Local News - your window on Kalkan Turkey