Qatar’s roads will see increased number of ambulances over the next few days. Some 50 brand new ambulances will hit the roads soon, helping Hamad Medical Corporation’s Ambulance Services (previously EMS) optimise its response time. “This week, we will be receiving some 50 new ambulances as part of efforts to prepare ourselves for major events coming up in the country. It is going to be busy month and for the Arab games alone, we are planning to deploy up to 50 ambulances and we will also be present at the World Petroleum Congress as well as station some ambulances in strategic locations throughout the Qatar National Day celebrations,” said Dr Roberts Owen, Executive Director, Ambulance Services, HMC. “The new ambulances, which are smaller in sizes have been redesigned for easy navigation through traffic and for quicker access to emergency cases apart from being environment-friendly. It will help optimise our emergency response time. However, in spite of being smaller, they are intelligently designed with enough clinical space inside. The interiors have been fitted with new technologies, adequate lightening, smart air-conditioning that can help infection control and other effective materials. Added to this, some 20 non-emergency ambulances will also be launched later,” he said. Meanwhile, the ambulance services, by April next year, will start to put physical structures in strategic ambulance locations, as part of its “hub and spokes” system. “The public must be wondering why ambulances are stationed in certain places round the town, especially near densely populated areas. This is because, these are the places were they should be to tackle any emergency cases as soon as possible. We will be putting physical shelters in these places next financial year, so that it can be help to our staff during the summer months,” he said. “Emergency calls continue to increase by 10 percent each year, and so we look into various tangible ways to operate the emergency services. With the rains, by this time we have seen marginal increase in road-traffic accident, though they are small or mild cases.” Lifeflight, the air ambulance which recently commenced night shift, will soon be extended to Sealine area, where accidents and trauma cases raise during the winter camping season. “We have carefully designated landing zones for night flights due to the risky nature of night operations. One key location where we envisage occurrence of serious trauma is the Sealine area as we have noticed an increase in migration to that place since the onset of winter.” He also urged public not to drive themselves to hospital if they suspect any heart problems. The Peninsula

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