Dr Hanan Al Kuwari, (sixth left) Managing Director of Hamad Medical Corporation; Mohammed Mubarak Al Noaimi (centre), Brendon David Morris (fifth right), Chief Operations Officer, Ambulance Service (AS), Ali Darwish Karbon (fourth right), Senior Operations Manager, AS, with other officials during the launch ceremony yesterday. (Kammutty VP)
By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: Ensuring quick response to emergency calls, Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Emergency Medical Services (EMS) yesterday opened the first sheltered ambulance dispatch point near the Immigration Roundabout in Madinat Khalifa area.
The location has been chosen considering the increasing number of calls for ambulance service received from places near the area. It also gives easy access to several other places.
The dispatch point was opened according to a new service model for the service known as ‘Hub and Spoke’ — stationing ambulances at places closer to where more calls are received for emergency service. The facility is directly connected to the National Command Centre.
Two ambulances and four staff will be on duty. Dispatch points have been in operation for some time but this is the first formalised facility.
Dr Hanan Al Kuwari, Managing Director of HMC, officially opened the sheltered point in the presence of other officials from EMS.
Twenty-six more such points are to be opened this year. Five of them will be opened in a few months.
“All chosen locations are based on numbers of calls to the ambulance service,” said Bredon David Morris, Chief Operations Officer, Ambulance Services at HMC.
“This location (Immigration Roundabout in Madinat Khalifa) was identified as the top priority location. And logically too from the Immigration Interchange you can go to all four corners of Qatar,” he added.
The new facility functions with solar power. Recycled water will be used to clean the solar panels. Staff at the shelter can leave without closing the doors as it will be locked automatically and the power will be switched off within 15 minutes as it is connected to a sensor system.
Vehicles will be connected to power even when their engines are switched off to keep equipment functional.
The building can be easily removed and assembled in case if it has to be shifted to another place. It can be divided into 60 pieces and reassembled in five days and would be operational in seven days.
In order to best help people, the service has urged them to remember five key ways they can assist during an emergency.
A special card with the five ways — dial 999, know your location, answer all questions, follow all instructions and give way to ambulances — is being printed in English, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu for distribution among the public.
No abuse of privilege
The service has been receiving complaints from the public that emergency vehicles are abusing the privilege of lights and sounds, said Morris. It is a clear misunderstanding among the public, he said.
“If an ambulance switches off its lights and sounds after passing one particular point, it’s purely due to an operational method,” Morris said.
“This is the operational model whereby the ambulance is constantly getting updates, from their colleagues who are already at the scene of the accident or at the house of a sick person, they will be giving feedback to all other ambulance units that are responding.
“Lights and sounds will be put off immediately when it’s not a critical situation,” Morris said.
“You will see ambulances on the road switching off their lights and sounds at certain points, that is not abuse, this is not putting the community at risk by driving unnecessarily. It’s because of the information we received back form the location that we are going to,” he added.
The Peninsula
