The recent announcement by the Hamad Medical Corporation to launch new ambulances for areas outside Doha shows that the authorities are committed to provide best possible healthcare services to the residents.
Hamad Medical Corporation’s Ambulance Service, on Tuesday announced that it would launch a newly improved fleet of 60 emergency vehicles to further strengthen its services for patients outside Doha.
The ambulances also known as ‘Rural Ambulances’ are specially designed to meet the requirements of areas outside Doha and will be included into operations in a phased process.
These ambulances are more spacious compared to the existing ones, and can carry up to two patients in case of emergency. According to the officials of Hamad Medical Corporation, all safety features of the new ambulances have been assured and the staff including the paramedics have been trained to operate the new vehicles. The Corporation has looked into all measures to make sure that its safe for the people inside the ambulance, such as the brake and the steering systems, that keeps the population safe when the ambulances responding in high speed in the rural areas.
More people are availing the services of ambulance services in Qatar. Hamad Medical Corporation’s Ambulance Service, which receives more than 700 calls on average daily, has seen an increase of 12 percent in the total number of calls in 2017.
A total of 269,053 calls were received in 2017 by the Ambulance Service compared to 239,782 in 2016. Among all cases the Ambulance Service attended 21.6 percent trauma cases due to road accidents and injuries as well as 78.4 medical emergencies such as cardiac problems, stroke and other conditions.
Ambulance Service reaches to 93.29 percent of cases within ten minutes, inside Doha and 97.47 percent of cases outside cases within 15 minutes.
Two important initiatives Emergency Vehicle Pre-Emption System (EVPS) and ‘Know The Five to Save Life’ campaign introduced in the past has significantly contributed in enhancing the Ambulance Service.
The EVPS is a GPS based system on the traffic lights which receives signals from the emergency vehicle unit. These devices request green lights before hundreds of meters ahead before the signal lights.
The person who drives the ambulance has no control over the system but it works through sensor. HMC’s Ambulance Service at present has a fleet of 338 different types of emergency vehicles. Besides the main ambulance station, there are 30 dispatch spots across the country. The proactive steps taken by the authorities in Qatar will ensure that the residents will get best healthcare services.
