By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: In a new project to increase awareness, Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Ambulance Service will reach out to the public next year for feedback. It aims to educate everyone in the country to know what to do when an emergency situation arises.
Ambulance Service’s ‘Help Us Help You’ awareness campaign began in 2013 and the new project will reach out to people and know about their experiences.
“One of the areas we are excited about the new year is heaving a more detailed feedback from the community and their experiences.
“We are looking to run some research on this to reach out to some focus group, speak to people, get to know more about how they experience the campaign and how we can improve to get the message further,” Brendon Morris, Chief Operating Officer, Ambulance Service, told this daily.
“We will look at the best way to get the message through to everybody. Every single person has to know what to do in an emergency,” he added. Morris said it’s important to keep reminding about the message as the community is rapidly changing with new people moving in.
“The campaign will continue to be a success. And so many new people are coming to Qatar all the time, and we believe that we have to continue with the campaign all the time.
“The people for some time would think oh it’s the same message, but many people are new to the country. So we believe it’s our responsibility to keep reminding them of what they need to do to help us help them when they have an emergency,” said Morris.
The campaign addresses the role the public can play in saving lives, and highlights five ways in which people can help Ambulance Service provide fast and effective care. It asks the public to do five things to help save lives — dial 999 immediately in a medical emergency; know your location so an Ambulance Service can reach you easily; answer all questions on the call so the paramedics know what support you need; follow all instructions given by the emergency call handler, as it may help save a life; and give way to ambulances on the road.
Ambulance Service receives about 300 calls daily and attends to 80 percent of medical and trauma emergencies. It reaches patients at an average response time of eight minutes.
The Peninsula
