Four new ambulance stations will save lives

Public health emergency response in Cyprus is getting another upgrade with four additional ambulance stations aimed at providing faster service in out-of-town areas.

The four new stations are in the rural areas of Saittas-Moniatis, Pachna, Evrychou, and Tillira, where first responders will have quicker access to reach their destination.

The Health Ministry also hired 25 new emergency medics who already went through proper training by the Ambulance Services.

New emergency vehicles were also purchased with state-of-the-art ambulances joining the fleet in the public health sector.

Cyprus was the first country in the world to implement a system combining emergency call and patient tracking technology, when the ministry two years ago launched a smart phone application to help medics track down their patients.

The system aimed at further cutting down the time between an ambulance being alerted and reaching a patient, with officials saying they were confident this would help save lives.

But the government has also been under criticism for not having a more robust first-responder system.

Efforts to get more emergency vehicles were upgraded in recent years, as part of an effort to unify rural health centres under a new system that would benefit the lives of out-of-town residents.