The Hamad Medical Corporation's (HMC) ambulance service continues its important role in implementing the coronavirus (Covid-19) prevention, and it responds daily to hundreds of emergency calls unrelated to cases of the virus, besides playing a pivotal role in implementing measures set by the healthcare sector in Qatar to protect the population from the coronavirus (Covid-19).

Dr Robert Owen , CEO of the Ambulance Service at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) said, "The outbreak of coronavirus (Covid-19) presented many challenges that we had not faced before, but we have planned and prepared well for such crises during the past years."

He said that over the past decade, work was done to expand the capacity of ambulance services and develop the quality of care provided, noting that ensuring the availability of equipment and expertise required to manage crises such as the coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19) is part of this development.

Dr Owen added that planning and preparing for crises is the ability to provide services fully, including the safe transportation of confirmed or suspected cases, and the provision of medical services within different areas.

For his part, Brendon Morris, Executive Director of the Ambulance Service, said, "The coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak reflected our ability to respond to a high number of emergency calls, as we witnessed an increase of 30 percent of our daily activity during the (Covid-19) pandemic, before that, we used to receive about 700 calls a day, and this number continued to increase until it reached nearly 1,000 calls per day in recent months. "

He added that hundreds of calls received by the ambulance service daily from people suffering from medical emergencies that are not related to the coronavirus (Covid-19), and that its employees are fully prepared to provide assistance for any situation that requires emergency medical intervention.

For his part, Ali Darwish, Assistant Executive Director of the Ambulance Service at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) noted that with the arrival of thousands of travellers to Qatar daily, at the beginning of the crisis the ambulance service transported any traveler who has a fever and has a previous travel record to one of the countries affected by the virus either to the facilities Medical or quarantine center after check up procedures at the airport and the symptoms of coronavirus (Covid-19) appears.

He added that the ambulance service provides safe transportation for confirmed or suspected cases of infection with the virus, as ambulances have been allocated exclusively to transport these patients and provide paramedics with personal protective equipment to preserve their safety from any possible infection.

He stressed that all ambulances transporting confirmed or suspected cases of infection with the virus are fully sterilised and disinfected.



Related Story