TNAG-1619-FCO40-2228-Executive-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-meet-1987 — Page 137

GF 323

17

CONFIDENTIAL **

3

The meeting agreed that the routine tier should be composed of a mix of two and three man crews. The meeting also noted that the saving made in the last sentence would be notional because it would take some time to implement the recommendations.

Recommendation (vii)

Hospitals and clinics should co-ordinate their discharge and transfers as much as possible in facilitating of ambulance operations. Routine requests are increasing sharply, especially those for geriatric patients and the quality of these services will inevitably fall unless these requests are regulated. This could take the form of organising transfers at pre-arranged times each day or more effectively, of requesting transport 24 hours in advance so that routes and loads may be planned the previous evening by the Routine Control staff

18

With regard to the fixed-scheduling and pre-planning systems, the Chief Ambulance Officer said the current situation in geriatric hospital was not chaotic. The meeting also noted that subsidized hospitals might have considerable internal individual expansion in the next few years, and as a result the need for inter-hospital transfers might decrease.

19

The Chairman said it would be difficult for the Steering Group to set a time frame for the full implementation of the recommendation at the moment without knowing the outcome of the pilot scheme. The meeting agreed that this recommendation of co-ordination be attached strong priority in importance because the success of transfer co-ordination would have a crucial effect on the performance of the whole ambulance service.

Recommendation (viii)

The management structure should be strengthened. There should be officer cover at all ambulance depots round the clock. The post of Hospital Controller should be upgraded to an officer post. A regional structure would be appropriate, with three regions and initially five divisions. The four corresponding operational officer ranks should be Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer (region), Superintendent (division), Senior Ambulance Officer (depot), ambulance Officer (watch or station). A proposed organisation chart is given in Appendix 5

27

The Finance Branch representative said the arguments put forward was not strong enough. He also considered that this issue should be referred to CSB since grading was their responsibility.

CONFIDENTIAL #