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| Examination of Estimates of
Expenditure 2006-07
|
| |
Reply
Serial No.: SB139
Question Serial No.: 0057
CONTROLLING OFFICER'S REPLY TO WRITTEN QUESTION |
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Head:
|
23
- Auxiliary Medical Service |
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Subhead
(No. & title): |
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Programme: |
Auxiliary
Medical Service |
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Controlling
Officer: |
Chief
Staff Officer, Auxiliary Medical Service |
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Bureau
Secretary: |
Secretary
for Security |
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Question
: |
It is known that the Government is planning to let the Auxiliary Medical Service (AMS) take over from the Fire Services Department the service of transfer of patients between hospitals of the Hospital Authority. Please give a detailed description of the plan and inform this Committee whether the 2006-07 estimates of expenditure of AMS will be affected. |
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Asked
by: |
Hon. TAM Heung-man |
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Reply:
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The Fire Services Department (FSD) currently provides two types of ambulance service for the Hospital Authority (HA), namely "Priority One" calls and "Priority Two" calls. The former involves transfers of patients with extreme urgency from a hospital or medical institution to an acute hospital for emergency treatment or examination without delay. FSD treats these "Priority One" calls as emergency ambulance service (EAS) calls. According to FSD's performance pledge, 92.5% of such calls should be responded to within 12 minutes. As regards "Priority Two" calls, they are termed as "Urgent Calls" by FSD. According to the definition of HA, these calls are less urgent as compared with "Priority One" calls. Ambulance staff is required to transfer patients from a hospital or medical institution to another hospital or medical institution for medical treatment or examination.
We understand that for some cases of "Priority Two" calls, the patients may not need to be handled by professionally trained personnel like the ambulance staff of FSD. Therefore, the Security Bureau, FSD, HA and the Auxiliary Medical Service (AMS) are carrying out discussions about whether some of the "Priority Two" calls can be triaged and handled by AMS based on the assessment of medical personnel. This could enable FSD's ambulance staff to focus on EAS calls that need their expertise, and hence improve the service for those who are in genuine need of EAS. As the above proposal for adjusting the mode of service delivery of "Priority Two" calls is still under study, estimates of the expenditure involved are not available at this stage. |
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Signature:
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|
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Name
in block letters: |
CHAN
YIU WING |
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Post
Title: |
Chief
Staff Officer, Auxiliary Medical Service |
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Date:
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9
March 2006 |
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