New traffic system helps SCDF's ambulances reach hospitals faster

Amid busy traffic one morning in September, a woman who suffered a cardiac arrest was being taken by an ambulance to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) in Jurong East.

- Samuel Devaraj

The woman in her 50s had fainted at the void deck of a Housing Board block in Jurong West Street 42.

The ambulance took six minutes to reach the hospital.

During that time, a team of Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) paramedics, including Sergeant 3 Sharon Tan Yan An, treated the unconscious woman on board the vehicle.

Arriving at the hospital, the woman's heart began to pump again, and she was handed over to hospital staff to be looked after.

The ambulance was able to reach the hospital faster due to a new system that gives SCDF's emergency ambulances priority at certain traffic lights.

Speaking to the media on Nov 22 at Jurong Fire Station where she is based, SGT3 Tan, 26, said: "Every second matters for such cases, especially when it involves an organ like the heart.

"The faster we can reach (the hospital), the faster the patient can get care."