The Medical Priority Despatch System (MPDS) - the controversial proposal to grade the urgency of each ambulance call, tabled recently in the legislature by the Fire Services Department - has been widely used for years in 22 countries, including the US, Canada and Britain.
Hong Kong will be the first in Asia to implement MPDS, a Fire Services Department (FSD) spokesman says.
It is expected to reduce calls for ambulance services and 'save lives', says FSD director Anthony Lam Chun-man.
MPDS categorises patients into different groups according to their conditions, and then despatches paramedics within a certain timeframe according to urgency.
Under the new system, there are five categories of urgency. For 'Category E', or immediate life-threatening cases, the ambulance team will arrive at the scene within eight minutes and 59 seconds, almost three minutes faster than the present pledge of 12 minutes.
However, for 'Category A', or non-serious cases, the arrival times may vary from 20 minutes to 50 minutes, depending on the patient's condition and resources available.