Qatar has been keen on taking advantage of the latest technology whether it is in transport and communication, healthcare, education, infrastructure or industry.
The latest example of adopting modern technology is the deployment of drones by Hamad Medical Corporation’s Ambulance Service to enhance surveillance capability of incident scenes.
Surveillance of an incident scene and its surroundings can prove crucial and critical in rescuing and evacuating casualties without loss of valuable time.
Timely intervention and giving essential first aid and other possible medical help at the scene itself can save lives. The drones help the Ambulance Service teams get a thorough and accurate assessment of the surrounding areas, providing vital information needed to ensure the delivery of the most appropriate medical response.
“The introduction of the drones is another step forward for the Ambulance Service and further enhances our ability to provide high-quality emergency services to Qatar’s population,” said Thomas Raimann, Executive Director of Healthcare Coordination and Support Services at the HMC’s Ambulance Service.
The drones were introduced by the end of September last year during the IAAF World Championships in Doha. This latest addition to the health care sector will definitely add to the efficiency of emergency services extended by the state, which is already at par with the international standards. The maximum response time by HMC’s Ambulance Service team in Doha is an average of seven minutes and in case of rural areas it is 8.2 minutes, better than that of many developed countries.
In 2007, Qatar started LifeFlight, an air ambulance service using helicopters to transport patients to hospitals, which has resulted in saving several lives, especially from the remote areas of the country, where road traffic consumes a lot of time. The service responds to more than 2,000 emergencies in a year.
The new drone service will act as an eye in the sky for the Ambulance Service, providing an accurate on-the-scene assessment of the situation which helps in dispatch of additional support service to the scene of emergency.
In the future, it can be used for timely delivery of medicine or emergency equipment such as defibrillators or other supplies right to the incident scene.
eA few of the well-known technology industries have already started working on unmanned aerial ambulances which, in the near future, will be able to rescue, evacuate and move emergency cases in a faster mode, and definitely Qatar will be one of the first countries to introduce such a service when it becomes a reality.
