Background: During sporting events, there are restrictions with regard to access to patients due to closures along normal routes, which can cause delays in patient evaluation. The use of a motorcycle-based ambulance is one possible solution to this problem. However, no studies with regard to this have been conducted in emergency medical services in Thailand.

Objective: To compare the access times of a traditional ambulance and motorlance during major sporting events.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study examined all cases of emergency operations deployed from Srinagarind Hospital (Thailand) during major sporting events from January to November 2019. Data were recorded using the operation national standard checklist for emergency medical services in Thailand, which includes demographic data (age, gender), operation time (day, night), types of patients (trauma, non-trauma), and first on-scene procedure.

Results: During the eleven-month period of the study, there were four major sporting events, in which 23,334 athletes participated and 235 emergency-service operations were carried out. The median times from dispatch to resources being en route (activation time) for the motorlance and ambulance were 1.02 minutes and 1.46 minutes, respectively (p<0.001). The motorlance also had a 2.08-minute lower average response time than the ambulance (defined as call receipt unit arrival on the scene; p<0.001).

Conclusion: The median activation and response times of the motorlance were less than those of the traditional ambulance.

Keywords: Emergency medicine, Emergency medical services, Ambulances, Emergency mobile units