Shanghai: Local health authorities are considering ways to restructure the city\'s ambulance service in a bid to improve response times following a sharp rise in the number of non-emergency calls. \r\nIn 2011, non-emergency cases accounted for only about 17 percent of the calls received, the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission told a press conference on August 27. Last year, of the 642,000 \"trips\" made by the city\'s 600 ambulances, 40 percent were non-emergencies, it said. \r\nUsing high-tech medical vehicles effectively as taxis to transport people to and from health centers is putting enormous pressure on an already strained resource, the commission said |
