JEDDAH, 4 December 2003 — In an ambitious new program, the Saudi Red Crescent Society is to extend ambulance coverage of emergency cover in the Makkah Region. Complementing the two new ambulance posts opened on the Makkah Expressway recently, four new posts to cover Jeddah will open within the year.

First moves were made yesterday for the Red Crescent to purchase an Aerospatiale Dauphine helicopter, a 13-seater aircraft manufactured by Eurocopter of France. Used by search and rescue organizations around the world, it can be supplied as a four-berth air ambulance. The Dauphine can take off with a maximum load of 4,300 kg, has a maximum speed of 280 km/h, and can fly distances up to 850 km. Equipped as an air-ambulance, its range could form a 320-km circle around Jeddah and cover the needs of over four million people.

With its own air ambulance, the Red Crescent hopes that the seven-and-a-half-hour delay between callout and arrival of a helicopter to a major traffic accident near Taif recently — apparently due to bureaucracy and authorization delays — will not occur again.

“If we can get to the victims in the first hour, the ‘golden hour,’ then the chances of survival and recovery are greatly increased,” said an emergency team member.

“We have three major objectives in the program,” said Dr. Khalid S. Al-Hebshi, director general of the Makkah Region for the Red Crescent. “We want to reduce the response time from call to the arrival of an ambulance with a fully-trained and equipped team of paramedics to eight minutes, reduce the fatality rate of road accidents by 50 percent and raise community awareness of emergency procedures.”

In the Jeddah area alone, there are over 2,000 emergency calls a month and they are on the increase. Over 60 percent of the calls are related to traffic accidents. The new extended Umrah season is thought to account for the rising rate in the Jeddah area in general and the Makkah-Madinah Expressway in particular.

Already, over 1,000 trainees this year have received the basics of first aid and emergency procedures that will equip them with the elementary knowledge that might well be the difference between life and death. The trainees range from traffic policemen to housewives, high-school students and other selected men. “We intend to train another thousand a year for at least the next three years,” said Dr. Al-Hebshi.

The government has authorized the Red Crescent to raise finance from using its lands and other capital assets but the society still relies heavily on individual donations. “The Red Crescent is a society and has a special status that enables us to raise finances for the scheme,” said Dr. Al-Hebshi. “The financial and personal commitment of our major sponsor Sheikh Muhammad Jameel has given us a real boost.”

Jameel, chairman of the Abdullatif Jameel Company Ltd., has underwritten a substantial part of both the current and planned expansion. “This will allow us to take on projects that will bring to Jeddah the kind of coverage it should have,” Dr. Al-Hebshi said.