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    Following is a question by the Hon Li Kwok-ying and the written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, in the Legislative Council today (April 6):

Question:

    It was reported that the Fire Services Department introduced a new type of trolley stretchers last year and there was an incident a few months ago in which a patient was injured after falling from such a trolley stretcher.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

(a) it has investigated this incident; if so, of the investigation results; and

(b) the authorities have provided guidelines and on-the-job training for front-line personnel when introducing new equipment; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) An investigation of the incident has been completed by the Fire Services Department (FSD). In that incident, an ambulance crew responded to an emergency call in Tsim Sha Tsui at around 2.30am on December 25, 2004. During the removal of the patient from the ambulance upon arrival at the hospital, the patient fell off the stretcher. The results of the investigation indicate that the incident was attributable to the failure of the ambulance supervisor concerned to follow the proper operational procedures. The incident was not related to the design of the stretcher, which was a new model introduced in phases from January 2003. FSD will consider taking disciplinary action against the ambulance supervisor.

(b) Whenever a piece of new equipment is introduced, FSD will provide clear guidelines and adequate training for relevant staff before the equipment is used extensively.  In the case of the new stretcher, FSD has arranged appropriate training for all frontline ambulance staff to ensure that they are conversant with the usage and operating procedures of the stretcher before they are deployed for duty on the ambulances equipped with such stretchers.  In addition, during the daily training session for ambulancemen on duty, ambulance unit commanders will conduct briefing on the operating procedures of individual ambulance equipment to ensure that the ambulancemen are fully competent in using such equipment.

Ends/Wednesday, April 6, 2005

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