Coronavirus: Hong Kong residents wait up to 39 hours for ambulance as health care system buckles under strain of Covid-19 cases
- Overall percentage on hitting 12-minute target for response times has improved from all-time low revealed at the weekend
- But the longest waiting time hit one day and 15 hours, significantly more than the 26 hours reported on Saturday
However, the overall percentage on hitting a set target for response times has improved slightly.
In a reply to the Post on Monday night, the Fire Services Department said its ambulances had responded to three in 10, or 29.8 per cent, emergency calls within the 12-minute target as of Sunday. That was better than the all-time low of 23.3 per cent announced by the department’s chief on Saturday.
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But the longest waiting time hit one day and 15 hours, significantly more than the 26 hours reported by Director of Fire Services Joseph Leung Wai-hung on Saturday. On Sunday, 175 emergency ambulances were on duty.
The Omicron-fuelled coronavirus outbreak has placed the city’s public health system under severe strain, with patients waiting to be taken to hospital facing long delays. The daily Covid-19 caseload on Monday soared to 34,466 – a 32 per cent increase in a day – with 87 deaths recorded in 24 hours.
Paramedics arrived within the 12-minute window in 92.4 per cent of 715,194 calls last year. But since the fifth wave hit in late December, hundreds of paramedics have been infected with Covid-19, resulting in serious understaffing, while the number of calls has increased significantly.
Yanny Ng was one of the desperate residents who found the delays unacceptable. She said her grandmother in her 90s had suffered breathing difficulties and had a fever of 39.5 degrees Celsius (103.1 degrees Fahrenheit) at home late on Sunday night. Her whole family returned positive results on rapid antigen tests.