The Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Ambulance Service has installed a new Emergency Warning System (EWS) in about 50 ambulances for a pilot phase of three months. The new radio over-broadcast system allows the ambulance crew to alert drivers up to 300 metres ahead.
The trial of the new system began on September 1, said Thomas Reimann, Executive Director of Healthcare Coordination and Support Services at HMC’s Ambulance Service.
“The system will interrupt the radio broadcast and switch over automatically to unused channel enabling drivers to listen to an audio message, “Warning, ambulance approaching. Give way”, in Arabic and English. The system has a technology that can interrupt and switch over even if you are listening to a CD,” said, Reimann speaking to media persons on Thursday.
“The new system gives drivers more time to move safely and give way to an approaching ambulance. Drivers can hear our ambulance sirens and see their flashing lights up to 50 metres away, but the new warning system will enable us to give warning to drivers much further ahead,” he added.
The new system will compliment the usual lights and sirens on ambulances. At the end of the trial period, the HMC’s Ambulance Service will conduct a final assessment to find the efficiency of the system.
“Not to confuse the road users, EWS will choose the road that has the strongest signal and closer to the traffic signal. However the Ambulance Service will still retain the normal lights and sirens. Because there are pedestrians and motorcyclist on the roads and all vehicles will not be playing the radio,” said Reimann. On a regular day, the Ambulance Service attends nearly 700 emergency cases and deploys about 130 ambulances.
“The new system is installed in 50 vehicles, which is about half of the total number of ambulances deployed each day. We test the new system in all scenarios in urban and rural areas. At the end of the trial period, we would analyse data, feedback from members of public, those from the ambulance service and find how efficient is the new system,” said Reimann.
The new EWS is expected to help manage the traffic flow, reduce risk of accidents and ambulance service to reach the emergency scene faster. At present the Ambulance Service reaches an emergency scene within six minutes in the urban areas and 10 minutes in rural areas.
“In a medical emergency, it is very important that our paramedic teams can get to the scene of the emergency as quickly as possible. The public is very supportive and understands our role as well as need to give way to ambulances on the road,” said Rashid Andaila, Senior Manager of Communication Technologies at HMC’s Ambulance Service.
“The Emergency Warning System will enable us to give warning to drivers 300 meters before the ambulance approaches and it could help to reach the emergency scene faster than before,” he added.
The Ambulance Service has consistently promoted its ‘Know the 5 to Save a Life’ awareness campaign, which is designed to educate members of the community on the correct action to take when calling an ambulance. The new warning technology supports one of the campaign’s key messages, asking drivers to ‘give way to ambulances’.
