CDRRMO expects increase demand for ambulances in December

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Office (CCDRMO) is expecting a surge in demand for ambulances during the Christmas season.

According to CDRRMO officer-in-charge Ramil Ayuman, the CDRRMO expects the calls to rise due to the ongoing pandemic; frequent incidents of fire, road accidents, and other unfortunate events like natural disasters.

“With December now on its 6th day, we are expecting a surge of non-COVID emergency calls as the holiday season closes in. We urge the public to only call for an ambulance in a life-threatening emergency situation,” he said.

Ayuman said the Cebu City Ambulance Service responded to 563 incidents in November 2020 alone.

From September 2020 to November 2020, the ambulance service responded to 1,256 calls all over the city, most of which were medical in nature reaching up to 632 calls.

Aside from medical incidents, the ambulance service also responded to 392 trauma emergencies, 181 non-emergency cases, and 51 mothers about to give birth.

The Cebu City Ambulance Service will already be categorizing the calls they answer in order to identify the demand of each and respond accordingly.

“We will be triaging all ambulance calls based on severity and expecting a backlog in ambulance requests due to an increased demand for an ambulance. We assure the public that we will bring an ambulance to your location as soon as an ambulance would be available,” said the Cebu City Ambulance Service.

Cebu City Ambulance Service can be contacted through our Cebu City Emergency Hotline at Landline: 166/262-1424.

/bmjo