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In response to media enquiries about a petition to be staged by the Hong Kong Fire Services Department Ambulancemen's Union tomorrow (February 18), a spokesman for the Fire Services Department (FSD) said today (February 17):
"The department will not transfer any core duties of the ambulance staff to other organisations. Nor will the resources allocated to the ambulance grade be cut.
"What the Government is doing is to review the modes of ambulance service delivery to ensure resources are put to better use and to meet the growing demands," he said.
One of the areas under review is the handling of "urgent calls" from the Hospital Authority which involves the transfer of patients from a hospital or medical institution to another for treatment or investigation. At present, the FSD's internal target is to respond to such calls within an hour.
"As the department has explained to the staff before, the proposal is still being studied. The aim is to see whether the Auxiliary Medical Service (AMS) can help to handle some of the 'urgent calls' based on assessments by medical staff. This can reduce the workload of ambulance staff and enable them to focus on handling emergency ambulance services.
"Adjustment of the present mode of service delivery will only be considered under the condition that appropriate medical services for patients are not affected. When a more concrete proposal is made, we will consult the ambulance staff and decide whether to implement the proposal," he said.
"The proposal does not involve any outsourcing arrangement as the AMS is also a government department. Moreover, the strength of our ambulance team will not be reduced. In fact, we will hire 97 ambulance staff by open recruitment in 2006/2007," the spokesman added.
Ends/Friday, February 17, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:18
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