Reply:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Mr President,
(a)
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of the number of cases in which rescue efforts have been delayed due to the above problem in each of the past three years;
of the difference between the time taken for fire engines and ambulances to reach the scene of accidents in the areas mentioned above and the arrival time in other areas; and
whether there are any short-term or long-term measures to reduce the difference in arrival times mentioned in the answer to (b) above, so that the lives and properties of residents in the villages located in the remote parts of New Territories can be better protected?
The number of cases in the past three years where the Graded Response Time (GRT) for fire calls, and the target travelling time for emergency ambulance calls could not be met due to long distance travelling in the rural areas in the New Territories (NT) is as follows -
No. of emergency ambulance calls where target
As % of total
no. of
emergency ambulance calls
No. of fire
calls where
Year
GRT could not
As % of total no. of
travelling time
be met
fire calls
could not be met
1994
70#
6.28
314*
0.37
1995
125
5.77
253
0.21
1996
61
4.17
234
0.23
(up to Oct)
#
(b)
Data only available since September 1994
Data only available since April 1994
The average time taken for the fire engines to respond to fire calls in the rural areas in the NT in the past three years exceeds the GRT by 6.9 minutes due to long distance travelling; whereas the average time to respond to fire calls in other built-up areas in the NT exceeds the GRT by 2 minutes due to the same reason. As regards the emergency ambulance service, we do not have such statistics readily available.
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