SINGAPORE - Patients can tap an app for on-demand private ambulance services in non-emergency cases, much like how one would call a private-hire car.
Since last week, a partnership between house-call doctor app Speedoc and private ambulance operator Comfort Ambulance and Services has answered about 10 calls where a private ambulance was needed.
The new service is the first ambulance-booking app in Singapore. The cost of calling a private ambulance via the app can range from $120 to $170, depending on the location, time of day and demand.
Typical booking fees for a private ambulance can be from about $50 to $130 for a one-way trip.
Speedoc's chief executive officer, Dr Shravan Verma, said: "The app is available round the clock and users will be informed of the charges before they confirm their bookings."
With a few taps to key in the location and destination in the app, users can call on Comfort Ambulance's fleet of 25 ambulances to take them from anywhere in Singapore to more than 100 healthcare institutions across the island, including hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.
The official launch of the service on Wednesday (July 10) comes in the wake of the Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) announcement that it has stopped conveying non-emergency cases to hospitals since April 1 this year.
The move was to free up resources for life-threatening cases and is part of the SCDF's Emergency Medical Services Tiered Response framework.
In the last 10 years, the number of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) calls to the SCDF has increased year on year. Last year, it responded to 187,607 such calls, which works out to about 500 calls a day.
Of these, 10,398, or about 5.6 per cent, were non-emergency calls.
In non-emergency cases, people can call the 1777 hotline for a private ambulance, but the wait time can be as long as two hours, said Speedoc.
"Situations such as pneumonia and serious skin infections are not life-threatening but patients suffering these conditions may need to be sent to a hospital as soon as possible for treatment. Other patients may be bedridden, requiring them to be transported in a stretcher," it added.
With the Speedoc app, the wait time for a private ambulance can be shortened significantly to around 30 minutes.
The company is in talks with other private ambulance providers in Singapore to expand its on-demand fleet, a move it hopes will reduce prices and further shorten waiting time.
There are over 20 private ambulance operators here.
Added Dr Shravan: "Eventually, we want to gain from the economies of scale and bring down the cost of private ambulance booking for Singaporeans."
Dr Daniel Chan, group deputy CEO of Fullerton Healthcare Group which owns Comfort Ambulance, said the partnership will make its services more accessible to patients.
He added: "We take pride in ensuring the utmost safety when transporting our patients."
