An ambulance service is a crucial part of any healthcare system. The ambulance staff and paramedics, who are the first to respond to most medical emergencies, fulfill an essential and life-saving role for a society. This role becomes all the more important during public health emergencies, like the one facing the world right now. One of the highlights of Qatar’s state-of-the-art public healthcare system is its ambulance service, known as the Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service. HMCAS, with its fleet of hundreds of wellequipped ambulances and rapid response vehicles, has been playing a frontline role in Qatar’s fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), ensuring the safe transportation of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients to hospitals and quarantine facilities.
While playing this frontline role in the efforts to curb the coronavirus spread and given the highly-contagious nature of the pathogen, the ambulance services has introduced a host of precautionary and preventive measures to safeguard its staff, paramedics as well as the public. The HMCAS paramedics have received extra training in handling COVID-19 cases and are following the highest standards of care and prevention, including use of protective gear while transferring any suspected coronavirus patients. All the ambulances are being regularly disinfected, while every vehicle which transports a COVID-19 patient undergoes a deep cleaning as per the guidelines of the Communicable Disease Center.
While the caseload has increased considerably during the ongoing COVID-19 related efforts with the daily average ambulance requests jumping from around 800 to 1,200, the health authorities have ensured smooth functioning of the ambulance network. Field and office operations have been separated for the safety of the staff. A fleet of ambulances is exclusively serving the Industrial Area, where a large number of expatriate workers live and work. HMC is also screening everybody entering Qatar and, depending on their condition, transporting them to a healthcare or quarantine facility in the country.
The HMC Ambulance Service is also keeping all quarantine facilities disinfected and decontaminated. The Hamad Medical Corporation has also set up drive-through testing facilities at various hospitals and health centers where especially-equipped vehicles have been deployed to screen people for COVID-19. This has not only lowered the number of people visiting the hospitals for tests but also increased the COVID-19 testing capacity at health centers. The dedication and care shown by the country’s healthcare workers keep winning the hearts of the people of Qatar
