Emergency rescue pilot project in China

01 Jun 2017 Infrastructure
The People’s Republic of China is planning to set up a state-of-the-art rescue service based on the German model. To this end, the Björn Steiger Foundation was commissioned in June 2016 to set up a pilot project in the city of Jieyang (population: 7.5 million) in Guangdong Province in southern China for an integrated rescue system encompassing everything from the emergency call center to the rescue helicopter. The project is acting as a model for a nationwide emergency land and air rescue service “Made in Germany.” The aim is to ensure that the service can respond to 95% of all medical emergencies within 15 minutes.
A number of German and European companies such as Airbus Helicopter, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Bosch Sicherheitssysteme, Deutsche Telekom and Drägerwerk are all involved in the development of this integrated rescue service under the auspices of the Björn Steiger Foundation. In addition to response vehicles, rescue helicopters, rescue coordination centers and state-of-theart medical equipment, the project also involves professional training of the required personnel. Among other things, the foundation is providing training for control center operators, emergency paramedics, pilots and, for technical rescue assistance, firefighters, as well as re-skilling doctors to take on the role of emergency doctors.
The project costs for the initial phase of implementation in the center of Jieyang for 550,000 inhabitants by the end of 2017 will be almost €43 million. If all goes well with the pilot project, the rescue service is to be rolled out across Guangdong Province, which has a total population of around 125 million, by 2028. The service might also potentially be expanded step by step to include other provinces, too.