ENG-1991 — Page 319

PUBLIC ORDER

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Ambulance Services

The department operates the government ambulance service with a strength of 2 123 in all ranks of uniformed staff and 160 civilian employees. The service operates 273 ambulances and ambulance-aid motorcycles from 25 depots or stations throughout the territory and from many fire stations. During the year, 234 211 emergency calls and 185 566 non- emergency calls were handled, involving 525 746 people and representing an average of 1 150 calls every 24 hours. This was a decrease of 3.04 per cent in the number of calls compared with the total for 1990. Facilities on ambulances are constantly reviewed and all ambulances are equipped with analgesic apparatus, piped oxygen, inflatable splints, special stretchers and incubator-carrying capability.

A batch of selected ambulance personnel was trained in the use of automatic advisory defibrillators to handle patients/casualties suffering from heart attacks. As a pilot scheme, all ambulance-aid motorcycles were equipped with a defibrillator to provide defibrillation service early in 1991.

A radio/telephone patching system was installed in the Fire Services Control Centre to enable interactive communication between ambulances and major hospitals.

In the continuous effort to ensure the effective use of ambulances, new guidelines on non-emergency ambulance transfers were introduced at end-1990 for private hospitals, homes for the aged, government and subvented hospitals. Over the year, these guidelines were constantly reviewed by the department in co-operation with the authorities. The - Fimplementation of the new administrative arrangements ensured that ambulance services for non-emergency cases were reasonably provided, and more cost-effective use of ambulance resources was thus achieved.

Appliances and Workshops

The department has some 700 modern operational appliances and vehicles fitted with up-to-date fire-fighting and rescue equipment to ensure fast and efficient fire-fighting and rescue operations can be carried out. In 1991, 53 new or replacement appliances and vehicles of various kinds were put into service. The mini-ambulance purchased specially for outlying islands, with a complete vehicle body built by the Fire Services Workshop, proved to be successful. Two more mini-ambulances were purchased and are now serving in Peng Chau and Lamma Island.

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The department is constantly evaluating new products from different parts of the world to see if they can be used in Hong Kong.

To maintain its fleet of fire appliances and rescue equipment, the department operates four workshops - one on Hong Kong Island, two in Kowloon and one in the New Territories.

Communications

Since May 1991, all emergency calls are handled by the Second Generation Mobilising System installed at the new Fire Services Communication Centre. Costing over $100 million, this new computer-based system monitors the location and status of fire engines and ambulances at all times. When an emergency occurs, the system will recommend which fire stations and appliances to alert and will monitor the position and readiness of vehicles already on the road. The time taken to handle incoming emergency calls and despatch the fire appliances is cut to well under 60 seconds in most cases.