Ambulanceman Wat Ki-on

HK magazine: How many ambulances serve the seven million people of Hong Kong?
Wat Ki-on: We have around 214 vehicles for the dayshift and 113 vehicles for the nightshift. A shift is 12 hours and there’s no lunchtime.

HK: That sucks. And what’s the man-to-woman ratio for paramedics?
WKO: We have around 230 men and just five women. We have to carry people around, fat people. So realistically, women aren’t going to be well suited for that kind of physical activity.

HK: Who uses the service most?
WKO: Schools and big corporations almost always use ambulances. They leave the injured and the sick to the paramedics. They don’t want to be responsible for unfortunate casualties in case families come back vengefully and ask, “Why didn’t you call an ambulance?!”

HK: Which district in Hong Kong uses the least ambulances?
WKO: There’s no district that uses the least. We divide them into the 16th, 17th and 18th levels of hell. The New Territories are 16th level. So are the outlying islands. We get emergency calls from Lantau and Cheung Chau a lot. So there’s no place that’s heaven, it’s all hell. Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok areas comprise the 18th level of hell.

HK: What emergencies are most common in Hong Kong?
WKO: The core of Hong Kong’s population is over 60, so there’s a lot of old people problems. And because of Hong Kong’s severe pollution problem, respiratory diseases like asthma are also widespread.

HK: What about the types of illnesses that plague paramedics?
WKO: Since we barely have time to eat meals and usually devour it down in the quickest amount of time we can, we tend to get stomach and digestive disorders. And joint injuries as well since we carry people around in stretchers or on our backs a lot.