Hong Kong government urged to review future ambulance services as population ages

Patients' rights groups are calling on the government to review the city's ambulance services to ensure they are capable of meeting the burgeoning demands of the city in the future.

"There is a concern that while the population is growing and there are more cars on the street, there may be a need to keep an eye on the ambulance response times," said Alex Lam Chi-yau, vice-chairman of the Alliance of Patients' Organisations.

In the past five years, the number of calls for ambulances has increased by almost 90,000. To meet the demand the city has added 100 more ambulances to its fleet with 300 more officers and frontline staff.

During this same period, Hong Kong's population has grown by about 290,000 to 7.26 million, and the number of vehicles on the road has grown by 30 per cent in the decade up to 2013, to almost 700,000.

Lam said while the alliance did not have a system to track the number of complaints regarding ambulance response times, it would welcome a regular review of the service.

Last year, there were 747,437 calls for ambulances, up 27,000 compared to 2013. This was equivalent to about 2,000 calls per day with ambulances taking 671,886 patients to hospitals or clinics.