In the past two months, about 10,000 Shanghai residents have used a new ambulance transportation hotline, the city’s health authority said yesterday.

The hotline, 962120, is meant for non-emergency transport of persons with limited mobility from hospitals back to their homes. In the past, such persons often called 120, the city’s medical emergency number.

With ambulances now being used more efficiently, emergency vehicles can reach callers in urban districts within 12 to 13 minutes, about 2 minutes faster than before, according to the Shanghai Commission of Health and Family Planning.