AMBULANCE VANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 185, 7 August 1935, Page 10

AMBULANCE VANS.

RADIO EQUIPMENT PROPOSED. FOR INCREASED EFFICIENCY. Ambulances in Auckland will soon be equipped with short-wave radio receiving and transmitting sets and will thus be always in touch with headquarters. Experiments are at present being conducted by Mr. M. L. Spackman, on behalf of the St. John Ambulance Association, and it is hoped that the first of the installations will soon be ready for use.

Radio equipment will bring the Auckland fleet into line with up-to-date overseas services. The drivers of the amibulancee will be enabled to keep in touch with the ofßce of the association, and it is expected that the efficiency of the service will be further improved. If the experiments at present being conducted are successful a low-powered transmitting station will be installed at the Rutland Street headquarters of the association, with a range over a radius of 15 miles.

At present valuable time is sometimes lost through the necessity of sending out a second machine from headquarters when there is already a machine in the district from which a second call has come. Once a driver leaves headquarters he does not report again until he has handed over his patient to the hospital authorities. The new system will give greater speed and mobility to the present service and will save much unnecessary running.