THE Quezon City government will boost its capability for public safety and emergency services once it gets the full delivery of 160 ambulances it just procured.
Mayor Herbert Bautista inspected the initial batch of the ambulances delivered recently at City Hall.
The custom-built Toyota Hi-Ace Grandia ambulances are equipped with an automated external defibrillator, oxygen tanks, spinal board, stretcher and a medical kit.
Bautista said each of the city’s 142 barangays will be assigned an ambulance, while the rest will be distributed to the health department, disaster risk reduction and management office, QC General Hospital, QC Police District, and Bureau of Fire Protection.
The city’s DRRMO will train ambulance crew or emergency medical technicians under the barangay emergency response team or BERT.
The BERT concept, which calls for the organization of community-based first responders, was pioneered by Bautista when he was still vice mayor in 1995. The concept was later adopted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government and Philippine Red Cross.