Ambulance Service
The Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service (HMCAS) is the national ambulance provider for the State of Qatar, delivering world-class pre-hospital emergency medical care to the community. Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, our highly trained paramedics and Critical Care Paramedics and specialist teams respond rapidly to medical emergencies, ensuring patients receive the highest standard of care from the moment help is requested.
With a modern, fully equipped fleet of emergency and critical care vehicles, commander vehicles, intensive care and retrieval vehicles, non-emergency vehicles, mobile command and control units and mass casualty units, supported by advanced technology and a state-of-the-art command and control centre, HMCAS is committed to reaching patients quickly and safely across Qatar with some of the quickest response times in the world.
We also provide specialised services, including neonatal and paediatric transfers, intensive care transport, bariatric patient care and support for major incidents and public events . Our advanced critical care paramedics provide anaesthesia and advanced trauma care at the scene in both land and air (Life-Flight) operations.
Scope of Service
Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service is organised into four operational divisions. Each division consists of core sections, some of which have specialised departments that enable the delivery of high-quality, integrated mobile healthcare across Qatar.
These divisions support both emergency and non-emergency services, ensuring clinical excellence, communication coordination and 24/7 logistical readiness.
Operational Services Division
Responsible for the deployment and operation of ground-based ambulance services, scheduled transport and event response throughout Qatar.
- Emergency Ambulance Service (EAS) Section
- Major Incident Response (MIR) Department
- Airport Department
- Scheduled Ambulance Service (SAS) Section
- Patient Transport Service (PTS) Department
- Interfacility Transport (IFT) Department
Clinical Services Division
Oversees the clinical governance, quality and professional development of paramedics and advanced life support teams.
- Critical Care Paramedic Services Section
- Clinical Desk (CD) Section
- Paramedic Clinical Quality & Patient Safety Section
- Paramedic Training & Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Section
Support Services Division
Provides essential infrastructure, logistical coordination and operational continuity to all divisions.
- Fleet Management Section
- Production and Facilities Management Section
- Procurement Section
- Supply Chain Management Section
- Workforce Management (WFM) Section
- Support Control Center Section
Coordination Services Division
Coordinates emergency and non-emergency communication, dispatch technology and emergency medical dispatcher clinical support services.
- National Command Center (NCC) Section
- Healthcare Coordination Center (HCC) Section
- Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Section
- EMD Clinical Quality & Patient Safety Section
- EMD Training & Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Section
Clinical Staff Model
Clinical Services Division
Our Critical Care Paramedics (CCP’s) are highly trained university-educated paramedics who undergo local orientation and human factors training. They are licensed by the Department of Healthcare Practice (DHP) and work mainly in the Critical Care Units (Charlie Units) and our LifeFlight air ambulance. They provide advanced life support, clinical supervision and advice at the scene, during transportation to the hospital, or from our clinical desks at our National Command Centre.
We routinely deploy seven Charlie Units across the country 24/7, supported by two Senior Consultant CCP Units, two LifeFlight Helicopters (provided by our Qatari Airforce key partner), critical care and intensive care staff, plus retrieval ambulances for specialist transfers and retrievals.
Working alongside CCP’s are Critical Care Assistants (CCA’s) who are licensed Ambulance Paramedics that have undergone additional training and development.
Emergency and Scheduled Ambulance Division
Our Ambulance Paramedics (AP’s) are highly trained university-educated healthcare professionals who undergo a local paramedic conversion course and various other training by our clinical training department. They are all DHP-licensed and work mainly on emergency ambulances, Scheduled Care Ambulances (non-emergency patient transport) and Interfacility Transfer Ambulances.
They provide either advanced life support (supported by CCP’s where required) at the scene and during transport to hospital or in the case of Scheduled Care, basic life support and care to and from homes and hospital facilities.
We routinely deploy (at peak) around 107 emergency ambulances (Alpha Units), supported by 15 AP’s on push bikes at key locations across Qatar, three Major Incident Trucks, four Major Incident vehicles, four Hazmat Ambulances and two green buses which are all capable of dealing with complex incidents including mass casualty incidents.
Our Scheduled Care Division deploys (at peak) around 73 non-emergency patient transport and Interfacility Transfer Ambulances (Tango Units) to meet our demand.
National Command, Control and Co-ordination Divisions
We operate two main command, control and co-ordination dispatch centres across Qatar. All 999 emergency calls are received, triaged and dispatched from the National Command Center (NCC) co-located with our emergency service partner agencies. This Center also co-ordinates mass casualty and major incidents as well as complex incidents such as LifeFlight and offshore emergences. We use state-of-the-art computer-aided dispatch systems, radio technology and live tracking mapping systems to support operations.
We also bring this type of command and control support to public events, mass casualty or complex incidents by deploying our mobile command and control units as well as our mobile control units. Our Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD), AP, CCP and operational managers all provide 24/7 operations from this Center.
Our other main command, control and co-ordination dispatch centre is our Health Care Co-ordination Center (HCC) which co-ordinates 24/7 scheduled care service, non-emergency patient transport and interfacility transfers.
Airport Department
HMCAS operates a 24/7 emergency response unit at Hamad International Airport (HIA). Within the airport, both landside and airside, we have a number of AP’s on push bikes, golf carts and emergency ambulances. We also provide a full medical clinic staffed by doctors and nurses, offering 24/7 care to staff and passengers alike.
Support Services Division
Support Services staff ensure that vehicles are maintained, cleaned, stocked and ready to be used by clinical staff to respond to patients.
There are many support teams that work tirelessly to ensure that HMCAS operates efficiently. Some of these teams include business intelligence, pharmacy, infection control, production, workforce planning, fleet, facilities, procurement, supply chain and logistics.
This work is coordinated through a 24/7 workforce planning and support control centre that monitors and manages real time staff and asset management to ensure we have the right staff and vehicles in the right place at the right time.
Deployment Hub and Spoke Family model
Our staff and vehicles operate from a number of hub ambulance stations and spoke ambulance locations strategically positioned around Qatar to enable us to respond to 999 emergencies as fast as possible and to position other resources in the right place. We use a software predictive modelling system to support this decision-making process.
In addition to this, our staff work in a family team model with the same supervisors and same team members working 12 hour shifts, four days on and four days off.
