Representatives from both the Macao Police General Headquarters and Hengqin’s Working Committee signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday to mark the inauguration of an ambulance service that would transport patients between the city and the island.
The hospital-to-hospital transfer scheme is the latest in a series of ambulance services across jurisdictions: other cooperative initiatives between Hong Kong and Macao and Zhuhai and Macao are already in operation. Mechanisms such as advance filing, simplified inspections and emergency priority passage will allow for an expedited customs process, according to the memorandum.
The service will run in tandem with the previously launched “car-to-car” model, in which patients are transferred between ambulances at the Macao-Hengqin demarcation line. Those who don’t meet the eligibility requirements for a direct ambulance would be able to use this transfer model.
[See more: Macao-Zhuhai emergency services enhanced with new ambulance fleet]
According to a press release from the Government Information Bureau, factors such as patients’ needs, safety and best interest are taken into consideration, while there are measures in place to prevent the system from being abused.
The new ambulance service implements President Xi Jinping’s aspirations set out during his inspection of the Macao and Hengqin Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone last year: to strengthen the “hard connectivity” of infrastructure, the “soft connectivity” of rules and mechanisms, as well as the “heart-to-heart connectivity” of residents on both sides of the demarcation line, wrote the Bureau.
Participating hospitals include Conde de S. Januário Hospital in Macau and Hengqin Hospital of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University.
