To use resources more flexibly and enhance emergency ambulance services, the Fire Services Department is studying the feasibility of criteria-based dispatch of emergency ambulances.

The proposed arrangement would allow patients or injured people in critical condition to be targeted first so they can receive earlier treatment.

The department will also be adding 10 ambulances in 2003-04 and 2004-05. The first batch of seven new ambulances will be delivered in the middle of this year. 

In a written reply to lawmaker Dr Ho Chung-tai, Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee noted that the department reviews the level and deployment of ambulance resources from time to time.

Improvement measures boost response-time performance

The department's performance pledge is that ambulances or ambulance aid motorcycles arrive at the scene within 12 minutes of emergency calls in at least 92.5% of the cases.

The response-time performance in 2003 reached 93.2%, exceeding the pledged performance target of 92.5% by 0.7% as a result of the introduction of a series of improvement measures.

The improvement measures include:

* a staggered shift system in 17 ambulance depots to target ambulance resources at the peak hours in the evening, and

* an Urgent Care Fleet, which releases more resources to attend to emergency ambulance calls. 

The percentage of ambulance calls attended to within the target response time in 2001 and 2002 - before the improvements were introduced - was 0.7% less than the pledged target of 92.5%.