The Ambulance Section of the Emergency and Public Safety Department of the Abu Dhabi Police introduced students from the Higher Colleges of Technology to the appropriate measures to take when calling for an ambulance and awaiting the medical team. The Department organized an awareness campaign under the title “Ambulance and Society.”
Colonel Mohamed Abdullah Al Nuaimi, Director of the Emergency and Public Safety Department stated: “The campaign is the first of its kind in Abu Dhabi. It will continue to spread awareness without a specific time frame, to acquaint the public with the work and services provided by the Ambulance Section to all members of society, through its well-trained medical staff and in accordance with the highest standards.”
First Lieutenant Mohamed Nasser Al Bahri, Head of the Abu Dhabi Ambulance Section, highlighted the role of the Ambulance Section to enhance general safety of citizens and residents, save lives and properties, reduce mortality rates, spread ambulance awareness and reduce the time of arrival of the ambulance, in line with international standards.
He presented an overview of the establishment and developmental stages of the service standards in the Ambulance Section, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
He explained to the students the right way of dialing the free emergency number 999, through which the Police Central Operations Room receives around-the-clock reports from the public.
He added: “The ambulance is used only in emergency cases such as heart attacks, dyspnea, syncope, work injuries, birth cases, falls from buildings, and traffic accidents. Unnecessary calls to the number may deprive someone else who is in greater need of the ambulance car.”
He pointed out that remaining calm while reporting an emergency, and providing accurate information, would reduce the time of response, which should not exceed 10 minutes under any circumstances.
Dr. Mohammed Al Mualij, Emergency Medicine Specialist stated: “Failure to give an accurate description of the location, the many detours and road closures, as well as the failure of motorists to give way to the responding ambulance impedes its quick arrival to the location of the emergency.”
He added: “First-aid means providing immediate and temporary care to the person faced with a sudden emergency health condition; the effort may save this person’s life until he receives proper medical care. He also stressed the need of keeping a first-aid kit in the house, the car, and at work.”
Al Mualij explained the way to handle small accidents like burns or fractures, minor injuries, suffocation, ingestion of foreign objects, which occurs particularly to children, coping with heart attacks, fainting, and internal and external bleeding.