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Following is a question by the Hon Andrew Wong Wang-fat and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mrs Regina Ip, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday) :

Question :

With effect from this month, the Fire Services Department (FSD) has adopted the 12-minute response time as the performance target for emergency ambulance service, in place of the 10-minute travel time target adopted in 1986. However, the FSD indicated in 1996 that the average response time for emergency ambulance service was 11 minutes. On the other hand, a performance target of six-minute response time is still adopted for fire-engines. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the measures in place to improve the response time of emergency ambulance service; and

(b) whether it has assessed if the revision of the performance target for emergency ambulance service makes the public feel that there is regression in terms of service standards?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Fire Services Department (FSD) commissioned a consultancy in 1995 to study ways to improve the performance of the emergency ambulance service (EAS). Among the extensive and comprehensive proposals in the consultancy report, action on some of the measures recommended for phased implementation have been completed. They include :-

(i) redeploying ambulances to extend emergency cover to all fire stations at strategic locations;

(ii) through internal redeployment, providing additional ambulances for the densely populated areas according to the actual pattern of emergency calls;

(iii) transfer of non-emergency ambulance service to the Hospital Authority and the Auxiliary Medical Service;

(iv) increasing the utilisation of ambulance aid motorcycles (AAMCs) in emergency response; and

(v) streamlining operational procedures to enable more flexible mobilisation of ambulances and crews and better service efficiency.

Regarding long-term measures, the Government has provided additional resources for the employment of 165 and 61 ambulancemen in the 1997/98 and 1998/99 financial years respectively. Following the completion of the Tung Chung and Sham Tseng ambulance depots and the new airport, 116 staff were recruited early this year to meet the service demand. The new recruits will render service in stages after induction training. The last batch of 105 staff, currently under training, will join the service in April 1999.

In additional to ambulance staff, we have also acquired 27 ambulances and 11 AAMCs as recommended in the consultancy report. Plans for new ambulance depots in North Point, Sheung Wan, Kwai Chung and Kowloon Tong are underway to further improve the EAS coverage. An efficient trunked radio system has also been put into operation. All these measures would help improve the EAS response time. In fact, the FSD was able to respond to 92.2% of emergency calls within a 12-minute response time in the third quarter of this year. We expect that the EAS will achieve its pledged performance target of 92.5% when another batch of trained ambulancemen render service in the second quarter of 1999.

In his main question, the Hon Andrew Wong has made an analogy between the 12-minute response time of the EAS and the 6-minute response time for fire engines. I wish to clarify that a graded response time has been adopted as the performance indicator for fire appliances, i.e. the response time for Grade A and B areas or densely populated urban areas is 6 minutes, while that for Grade C, D and E areas or scattered and isolated places ranges from 9 to 23 minutes. As fire services differ from the EAS in terms of service nature and demand, as well as mode of operation, strict, direct comparison between the two performance indicators would not be appropriate.

(b) The FSD has conducted a trial scheme in September 1997 to March 1998 to test the effectiveness of the trunked radio system in measuring the EAS response time. It was found that two minutes were required for the activation process. Taking account of the performance target of a travel time of 10 minutes, the target response time is set at 12 minutes. This new indicator reflects clearly the necessary procedures involved in completing an emergency response, which comprises a two-minute activation time and a 10-minute travel time. The 12-minute response time is therefore a clearer performance indicator. There is no regression in the service standard and, to the contrary, a response time indicator is generally accepted as more effective and comprehensive for measuring the performance of the EAS. I believe that there has been general understanding and acceptance of the revised indicator by the public.

The 12-minute response time performance indicator compares favourably with overseas standards. I also note that many metropolitan cities have not set any performance targets for their EAS.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the FSD's determination to achieve the new performance indicator in the second quarter of 1999, when we will also review the feasibility to further reduce the 12-minute target response time. Madam President, although the performance indicator has been set at responding to 92.5% of emergency calls within a 12-minute response time, our performance records reveal that the EAS response time for over 50% of emergency calls is actually less than eight minutes. The FSD has also issued internal guidelines to increase the utilisation of AAMCs for cases where the response time would likely exceed 12 minutes. All these arrangements are made to fulfil the FSD's performance pledge of ensuring that patients are provided with prompt emergency service and conveyed to hospitals as quickly as possible for necessary medical treatment.

End/Wednesday, November 11, 1998

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