reducing response times by half -- and potentially saving lives.

Officials believe the new programme, which has taken nine years to come to fruition, will revolutionise the way emergency situations are dealt with.

For medical calls, the Island has been divided into three sections and response teams will now be dispatched from three bases -- with the objective of slashing times from 20 minutes to ten minutes.

From now on all calls for urgent medical aid are to be made on 911 and will be put through to trained personnel at Fire Service headquarters, who will assess the injury or illness, before deciding what action to take.

Basic medical advice will be given over the phone to those at the scene, prior to professional help arriving.

In addition, for those in the East and West End, newly trained Emergency Medical Technicians based at Clearwater or Port Royal Fire Stations will be sent to take care of the victims before ambulances arrive.

Dr. Edward Shultz, in charge of the Emergency Room at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, said the new system was the only logical, cost-effective solution to cutting response times to the ends of the Island.

Basing an ambulance in the East and West, was not cost-effective, he added.

In 1990, when the problem was first looked at, the cost per call for ambulances based away from KEMH was $1,400, compared to $150 per call for the current scheme.

"I couldn't give a real estimate how many lives have been lost because of response times,'' he said.

"But we feel people with cardiac arrests, where getting to the patient might make the difference between life and death, the response time of 20 minutes is too long.'' In a joint press conference between Dr. Shultz, Deputy Chief Fire Officer Vince Hollinsid and acting Superintendent Phil Every, officer in charge of Police Operations, the officials said the new system also applied to all 911 calls.

Supt. Every said the public needed to start using the 911 system for all emergencies, instead of calling Fire, Police or KEMH on their normal seven-digit numbers.

"We beg the public not to use those numbers any more, because to do so could mean making matters worse -- it could even result in the loss of a life,'' said Supt. Every.