SCDF AMBULANCES

SCDF AMBULANCES

22.

Mr Andy Gan Lai Chiang asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether there is sufficient number of ambulances on duty each day to meet emergency calls; and (b) how many calls are made each day that require the presence of ambulances and on site first-aid.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: The Singapore Civil Defence Force has a fleet of 30 ambulances operating daily to respond to emergency calls. In addition, it has 18 Fast Response Paramedics on bikes that can respond to emergency calls quickly. The ambulances and Fast Response Paramedics on bikes are deployed at 14 fire stations and 22 satellite fire posts strategically located throughout Singapore to provide wide coverage.

The number of ambulance calls has steadily increased in the last 4 years, from 67,000 calls in 2000 to 79,000 calls in 2003. Between Januaryand September 2004, the SCDF responded to 62,000 ambulance calls, or an average of 226 calls per day. Of these, 90% (55,500) of the cases were found to truly require the presence of ambulances and on-site first aid.

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Currently, SCDF has sufficient ambulance and Fast Response Paramedics on bikes to respond to emergency cases. Between Januaryand September 2004, the SCDF responded to 83% of the calls within 11 minutes as compared to 64% in 2001. This significant improvement can partly be attributed to the establishment of satellite fire posts in our HDB heartlands in 2001, thus, bringing emergency services closer to the community. However, the increased demand for the service is a cause for concern. The public can also help by not calling 995 for non-emergency cases. They should instead call 1777 for such cases, because each time the Emergency Ambulance Service attends to a non-emergency call, it is less able to respond in time to a real emergency.

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