Ambulance Services

Demand for emergency ambulance services kept rising in the year. During
1997, ambulances answered 367 064 emergency calls, representing an
increase of 5.6 per cent compared with 1996.

Non-emergency ambulance services were transferred to the Hospital
Authority in October 1995, and in April 1997 the Auxiliary Medical
Service took over the non-emergency ambulance service originating from
private hospitals, the Social Welfare Department and Department of
Health for the whole territory.

The programmes to commission the second Mobile Casualty Treatment
Centre to strengthen the ability of the Fire Services Department to handle
multiple casualty incidents and to equip all ambulances with automatic
external defibrillators reached a final stage and will be completed in early
1998.

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