Beijing’s health authority has announced yet another important service that will improve the city’s emergency response: the installation of 288 first-aid stations across different districts.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning recently released a plan that specifies the groundwork for the city’s emergency service system, which will consist of general core centers for emergency resource management, and sub-centers in each district.
The guideline also considers factors like topographic layout and traffic conditions, as well as the distribution of centers, with Chaoyang District getting the most at 55. It adds that the city’s emergency response units will increase the number of mobile ambulances, allocating one per 10,000 residents. The country’s basic standard since 1994 has been one for every 50,000 people.
Beijing currently utilizes two emergency service systems, the 120 national emergency hotline and the 999 Beijing Red Cross Society ambulance hotline exclusive to the city. Qianlong.com reports that the 120 Emergency Center serves nearly 4,000 calls a day and dispatches ambulances about 900 to 1,000 times on a daily average.
The announcement comes shortly after the commission saying that emergency response hotlines in Beijing will feature a multilingual service, as part of the city’s effort to correct signs with poor English ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Aside from the hotlines above, here are the other numbers to keep in mind in case of emergency:
Police (phone): 110
Police (text): 12110
Police (English emergency hotline): 6525 5486
Foreign Emergency Services: 6525 5486
Beijing Health Hotline:12320 (website)
Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention: 6777 3512
Traffic accidents: 122
Fire: 119
Photo: Bernhard Wintersperger via Wikimedia Commons