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LCQ15:Emergency ambulance service
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     Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Li Fung-ying in the Legislative Council today (November 12):

Question:

     The Government earlier indicated that in view of the increasing demand for emergency ambulance service ("EAS"), it was examining various options, including introducing a medical priority dispatch system, for better deployment of resources.  Moreover, the Government would replace ambulances by phases so as to maintain the quality of EAS.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the current numbers of ambulances and ambulancemen in each division under the Ambulance Command;

(b) whether the authorities will, apart from replacing the existing ambulances, consider increasing the numbers of ambulances and ambulancemen to cope with the increasing demand for the service; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(c) of the details of the above study on the medical priority dispatch system (including the work arrangements for the proposed system)?

Reply:

President,

(a) The current numbers of ambulancemen and ambulances in each division under the Ambulance Command are listed below:

Region    Establishment of the  No. of                               
          Ambulanceman grade    ambulances
           (Note 1)              
------  --------------------    --------

Hong Kong      440                43
Island      
                                        
Kowloon        711                65

New
Territories    1,124              108
-------  -------------------     --------

Total          2,275              216

(b) The Administration attaches great importance to the performance pledge (Note 2) made to the public on emergency ambulance service (EAS) and monitors the situation very closely.  In order to meet increasing service demand and to maintain the service level in our pledge, the provision of additional ambulancemen and ambulances will be considered in the context of the Government's resource allocation system having regard to the public's actual demand on emergency ambulance calls.

(c) The Fire Services Department has commissioned a consultancy to study the feasibility of introducing a Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) in Hong Kong.  The preliminary results indicated that such a system would allow us to better differentiate the seriousness of incidents or patients, and give priority to the more critical patients accordingly.  The Department is now working out the specific options and detailed proposals.  When these become available, we will consult the Panel on Security of this Council as well as the public.

Note 1 :  Figures as at October 1, 2008.
Note 2 :  The performance pledge of the Fire Services Department in respect of EAS is to handle 92.5% of the emergency ambulance calls within a target response time of 12 minutes.

Ends/Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Issued at HKT 14:23

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