25
The Consultants have also made recommendations in relation to the requirement of the number of
of vehicles and control and information systems. An ambulance purchasing programme will be worked out in line with the recommended figures. Various control and information systems will be designed to enable better evaluation of the service to be made.
Recommendation
26
of
It is proposed that the major recommendations put forward by the Consultants (pages 18 and 19 of Annex B) should be endorsed in principle, subject to the availability resources and the acceptance of the financial and staffing implications by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council. As set out in Annex C. the ASRSG supported in principle all the recommendations of the consultants.
27
The endorsement of the major recommendations will set out the policy guidelines clearly and will enable better utilization of resources and the achievement of the ten-minute travel time target. The existing weak management structure will also be rectified.
Consultation
28
The two
two staff unions of the Ambulance command (the Ambulance Officers Association and the Ambulancemen's Union) have been
been given a copy of the major recommendations on a confidential basis. All the relevant government branches and departments were involved in the ASRSG.
Comments from the Ambulance Officers Association
29
The Ambulance Officers Association has in general welcomed the recommendations. The Association has commented that it believes a ten-minute target travel time is too long and that the aim should be seven minutes. It has also made comments on what it feels to be the inadequate structure of the officer grade.
30
With regard
regard to the suggestion to reduce the travel time to seven minutes, as set out in
paragraph 14, the Consultants considered that even to meet an eight-minute travel time would entail disproportionate resource implications, such as additional depots and staff. The capital costs of the six additional ambulance depots
a target eight-minute travel
travel time
time would be about $55M, with recurrent
needed to meet