My Take | Emergency services in Hong Kong put others to shame
- They are far from perfect, but ambulance wait times are nothing to complain about compared to those in Britain, and unlike in the US its police do not have rising kill tolls
Despite its recent trials and tribulations, it’s worth remembering Hong Kong’s resilience. No matter what other people say, the city works.
As reported yesterday, the Fire Services Department confessed to serious inadequacies in the past two years. Its ambulance service failed to hit its 12-minute response time target for six months last year as demands surged during the fifth Covid-19 wave.
Although emergency workers were able to respond to 88 per cent of ambulance calls inside the 12-minute mark overall last year, it still fell short of the department’s performance pledge of 92.5 per cent. Horror of horrors!
In Britain last year, patients had to wait up to two-and-a-half days for an ambulance amid the mounting public health service crisis from strikes. In South West England, a patient was forced to wait 59.5 hours for an ambulance.
The longest delay in the East of England was almost 40 hours, with waiting times of up to 36 hours reported in the East Midlands, and 29 hours in the North West of Britain. In Bangor, North Wales, a 93-year-old woman with a broken hip waited 25 hours for an ambulance and another 12 hours for hospital admission. This is starting to look third world. Christina McAnea, an emergency service union boss, said if patients died, it was not the fault of service providers but the British government.
I know BN(O)ers idolise mother Britain. The grass tends to look greener on the other side, especially if you have never gone over. But now that they have been there, realities are starting to sink in.