Better ambulance care helps more patients survive in rural Taiwan

In Taiwan’s Taitung County, an expanded ambulance network is helping more people survive emergencies far from hospital. Physician Zheng Hongxi says nearly 30 patients a year now leave hospital alive after cardiac arrest outside hospital, compared with only a few annually before 2011.

The county stretches 176 kilometres from north to south, with medical resources concentrated in its main city. Some patients face journeys of more than half an hour.

Zheng, of Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital, has spent two decades helping bring advanced care to those journeys. The county established its first advanced paramedic team in 2011. It now has 11 teams and more than 90 advanced paramedics, who can give emergency medicines, support breathing and relieve severe pain.

Ambulances also transmit patient readings and live images, allowing hospital doctors to guide treatment remotely and prepare for patients’ arrival.

For Zheng, the work became intensely personal in 2022, when his younger son suddenly struggled to breathe. The team he had helped establish gave the boy inhaled medicine to open his airways, and his condition quickly improved.

His work has earned him an individual honour in Taiwan’s 36th Medical Dedication Awards. Zheng credits the wider emergency-care team, stressing that no one person could have built the system alone.