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Rescue on wheels

The CAS is the first in the region to deploy state-of-the-art 12-lead ECGs in its 90 ambulances, due to increase to 110 by the end of the year, and four Air Wing helicopters operated by Dubai Police.

It is also deploying Automated External Defibrillators (AED) which actually instruct the user how to treat a person who has suffered a heart attack and analyse whether they need electric shock treatment. These briefcase sized devices are carried on six special motorcycle ambulances and are also available in five other locations, including Zayed University and Dubai Women's Association, Jumeirah. These have been sponsored by ROC Society, part of Emirates Industrial Gas Company, a member of the ROC Group Al Khalid.

It is expected that soon all of Dubai's 500 hotels and furnished apartment blocks will also have to keep an AED in their recreation clubs and maintain sufficient staff that are trained in their use. This will require training of about 200 hotel staff per month.

In the first three months of this year the CAS has provided cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation training to 1,400 people, including 40 from Dubai Women's Club. The training provided by the Ambulance Centre is accredited by the Royal College of Surgery, Dublin, Ireland.

The AEDs being used in Dubai tell the users step-by-step what to do when treating a heart attack and can be programmed do so in any of seven different languages, including English, Arabic, Farsi and Hindi.

"It is imperative that heart attack sufferers are given treatment as soon as possible, hopefully within three minutes, so the more defibrillators there are spread across the country the better," said Khalifa Aldarrai, Executive Director of CAS. "Public health is a priority for the Dubai government which is fully supporting our efforts to provide the highest standards of service comparable to anywhere in the world."

Later this year the CAS will introduce AEDs which automatically sends a message to the Ambulance Service dispatch centre whenever it is activated, alerting them that there is an emergency and in which region of the emirate. Dubai will be one of the first cities in the world to utilise this technology.

The Dubai ambulance service was also one of the first in the world to routinely use methoxyflurane gas inhalers for the rapid relief of pain.

The ambulance service, which has 43 stations in the city and four in border areas, responds to an average of 120-130 emergency calls per day. The majority of these are traffic accidents with motor crash trauma being the number one killer.