Ambulance service has attended 8,395 distress calls so far this Ramadan

The Ambulances Service at Hamad Medical Corporation ( HMC) has received over 8,000 calls from the start of the holy month of Ramadan until May 19. “We have received about 8,395 calls as on May 19 right from the beginning of Ramadan this year. The daily average of the calls range from 576 to 636  during this period. Out of these,  almost equal number of  calls are for traffic related accidents and for medical cases,” disclosed Ali Darwish, assistant executive director, Ambulance Service, HMC.Darwish was speaking to the media yesterday to highlight the efforts taken by the Ambulance Service to meet the emergencies during Ramadan.”“The peak time during Ramadan  is 2pm to 2am and a majority of these calls are made from 5pm to 9pm. Calls related to accidents are more during Ramadan but they are of low risk cases as the vehicles move in low speed during this period. Most of the medical cases are related to abdominal pain, muscle crank, hyperglycemia and other digestive issues among others,” explained Darwish.According the official, the Ambulance Service is well prepared to meet any emergency situation during Ramadan just like any other time. “We have special preparations and approach for the month of Ramadan. The full fleet of ambulance is ever ready to meet any emergency situation round the clock. We have the rapid response team as well as the distribution team. We have special teams to reach the needy and provide care for them,” noted Darwish.“We use the previous months’ statistics and we compare it with Ramadan. We have about 69 vehicles during day time spread across different regions.  During the peak time in Ramadan, we deploy 77 ambulances. In addition we also have the Rapid Response vehicles. Then we have distribution supervisors known as Delta and Critical Care Paramedics team. There are 18 of them, nine each in both categories,” said Darwish.The official also noted that the Ambulance Service takes care of all the events during the month and deploy ambulances at the venues of the events. Depending on the importance and the number of people in attendance for the events, the number of vehicles varies and the services are provided till the end of the events.